FG Injects N309bn into Agriculture

By Adedapo Adesanya 

The Minister of Agriculture and Food Security, Mr Abubakar Kyari, has claimed that an estimated N309 billion was injected into the Nigerian economy through harvest in the last year.

The Minister announced this while giving an update on the achievements of the ministry at the ongoing 3rd ministerial sectoral update, as part of activities marking the first anniversary of President Bola Tinubu, who assumed office on May 29, 2023.

Mr Kyari revealed that as part of efforts to address food and nutrition security, the government has launched dry season farming with cultivation of 118,657 hectares of wheat in 15 states in an acceleration of all-year-round farming, procured and distributed to all states and the FCT 58,500 metric tones of milled rice to dampen escalating prices, and fortified crops with vitamin A micronutrient to enrich nutrition content and health value of commodities.

In response to persistent food inflation, which currently stands above 40 per cent, the Minister explained that the government has also taken measures to distribute 60,432 metric tones of improved seeds, 887,255 metric tones of seedlings and 62,328 metric tones of inorganic fertilisers and equipment to farmers across different value chains to enhance production.

He further mentioned the improvement of farmland security with the provision of additional resources to agro rangers and other security agencies.

Mr Kyari also highlighted the efforts of the government in response to livestock production and animal health, control of pests and diseases, strengthening mechanisation, and agricultural research activities amongst others

He noted that the government has intensified efforts on the production and processing of soybean, sesame, ginger and hibiscus for export.

According to the latest inflation report by the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS), the food inflation in April reached 40.53 per cent on a year-on-year basis, marking a substantial increase of 15.92 percentage points from the 24.61 per cent recorded in April 2023.

The significant rise in food inflation can be attributed to higher prices for several items including millet flour, garri, bread, prepacked wheat flour, and semovita, all of which belong to the bread and cereals class, as well as for yam tuber, water yam, and cocoyam and others.  

For the year ending in April 2024, the average annual rate of food inflation stood at 32.74 per cent, representing an increase of 9.52 percentage points over the 23.22 per cent average annual rate recorded in April 2023.