The Federal Government has reiterated its dedication to tackling the rising cost of food items, assuring citizens that efforts are in place to stabilize market prices.
NaijaReporters understands that the Minister of Agriculture and Food Security, Abubakar Kyari, made this known while addressing journalists on the government’s strategies to curb inflation in the food sector.
A video of his statement was shared by the Minister of Humanitarian Affairs, Nentawe Yilwatda, on his 𝕏 handle on Monday.
Kyari attributed the high cost of food items to market dynamics and the activities of hoarders but assured that ongoing government interventions would help ease the situation.
According to him, policies introduced in 2024 have already started addressing the underlying causes of food price surges. He highlighted the administration’s commitment to ensuring food availability and affordability for Nigerians.
One of the key initiatives, he explained, is the dry-season farming project, which aims to make staple food cultivation an all-year-round activity to boost supply.
His words: “I have always said it from time immemorial, market prices are determined by supply and demand, simple microeconomics. What happened at that time was a challenge of high demand and low supply. But for 2024, I have said it, we had a positive harvest which means that we have more supply than previous years.
“And that is what is possible, and it was a deliberate attempt by Mr. President to make sure that we bring down food inflation to the bearest minimum. We’re not relenting, we’re looking at price stabilization mechanisms. Within the next two weeks, we’re going to roll out the stabilization and also further dampen and bring down the price without discouraging local production.
“We have seen, for instance, last year, when Padi Rice was going for ₦780,000 per tonne, the cost of producing that tonne was ₦350,000. So we felt there is still that margin, somebody somewhere is making an arbitrage that is not in line with government’s agenda.
“Whereas the farmer is getting 350,000, so who is making all that much? So it could be in the market. Now we have seen people that are hoarding are bringing the foodstuff out because they bought it at a high price and they don’t want to make any losses. So we’re also discouraging hoarding at the same time.
“We have done first season, the first part of the dry season in November, we are now going into the second part of the dry season, and we are going to do almost three cycles of dry season and then we go into the big wet season. So, hopefully, we are going to have a situation where we’re going to make it a tradition to have all-year-round harvesting of staple crops. We will hopefully be self-sufficient and the issue of affordability, we’re tackling the affordability.”
The government remains optimistic that these measures will significantly reduce food inflation, easing the financial burden on Nigerian households.