*Plans to establish National Commodity Board
*FG flags off 3 other programmes to boost food security
Disturbed about growing restiveness in parts of the country due to hardships being experienced across the country due to the failing economy, the Federal Government hinted at plans to establish a National Commodity Board as lasting solution to the escalating food inflation in the country.
In tackling price volatility, the board will be given the mandate to assess and regulate food prices, as well as maintain a strategic food reserve for stabilizing prices of crucial grain and other food items.
Vice-President Kashim Shettima disclosed this on Tuesday during a two-day high-level strategic meeting on climate change, food systems and resource mobilization held at the Banquet Hall of the Presidential Villa, Abuja.
Delivering his address titled, ‘Climate Resilience and Food Security: Nigeria’s Vision for the Future’, Shettima said the two-day event was an attestation of Nigeria’s efforts at mitigating the effects of climate change and ensuring food security for Nigerians.
Similarly, government said it has introduced three flagship programmes to boost food production and tackle current inflation across the country.
These programmes include: Water for Expanded Irrigated Agriculture Programme (WEIRPRO),
Partnership for Expanded Irrigation Programme (PEIRPRO) and River Basin Strategy for Poverty Alleviation (RB-SPA).
In this direction, the Federal Government has ordered the 12 River Basin Development Authorities (RBDAs) to embark on planting of crops during the dry season with irrigation schemes to make way for all-year planting to stem scarcity and inflation.
Recalling that food security was one of the eight areas of priority declared by President Bola Ahmed Tinubu as part of his Renewed Hope Agenda, which led to the declaration of a state of emergency on food security, Shettima highlighted on-going policy reforms of the administration to ensure food and water availability, as well as affordability.
“Our solution to the potential food crisis has become immediate, medium, and long-term strategies. The short-term strategy entails revitalizing food supply through specific interventions like the distribution of fertilizers and grains to farmers and households to counteract the effects of subsidy removal; fostering collaboration between the Ministry of Agriculture and the Ministry of Water Resources for efficient farmland irrigation, ensuring year-round food production; and addressing price volatility by establishing a National Commodity Board.
On the other hand, the Permanent Secretary, Federal Ministry of Water Resources and Sanitation, Shehu Shinkafi Aliyu, in Abuja at the 30th meeting of the National Technical Committee on Water Resources and Sanitation (NTCWRS) with the theme; ‘People, Planet and Prosperity: Promoting Water Governance for National Food Security’ on Monday, that the efforts are in line with the State of Emergency on Food Security Declaration and the Renewed Hope Agenda of the present administration even as he stated that implementation of the three programmes had kick-started with the launch of the dry season farming covering a total of 120,000 hectares of land in Jigawa State in November 2023 by the Federal Government in partnership with the Jigawa State Government under the National Wheat Development Programme.
“The expected outcome from the various interventions is to create five to 10 million jobs for our teeming youths within the agricultural value chain.”
Already, he said some RBDAs have commenced on the current intervention of the launch dry season farming within their catchment areas.
He therefore called on the rest RBDAS to follow suit.
To tackle inflation and ensure food availability and affordability, he stressed the need for partnership between the Federal Ministry of Agriculture and Food Security and his ministry.
According to him, part of the declaration of a state of emergency on food security to tackle food inflation is the involvement of “security architecture to protect the farms and the farmers so that farmers can return to the farmlands without fear of being attacked.
Keynote Speaker, Engr. Inuwa Musa, maintained that effective water governance is a major factor to food security, socio-economic development and growth of the nation.
“Bridging of institutional silos and harmonising of policies and planning in the Ministries, Departments and Agencies(MDAs) at all levels of government.”
He advocated a comprehensive legal framework to achieve Integrated Water Resources Management and complimentary institutional framework for effective to meet set objectives.
