President Tinubu unveils plan to increase food productions against inflation

 

The office of the Nigerian President has indicated its preparedness to increase grains production towards checkmating inflation on the food prices through the first and second phases of dry season farmings.

This was contained in a press statement made available to the media which was signed by Special Adviser to the President on information and strategy, Mr. Bayo Onanuga last week in Abuja.

The title of the press release is " update on Tinubu administration's efforts to ramp up food supply in the country" as it was noted that the Federal Government ( FG ) had last year November 2023 commenced dry season farming on wheat, maize and rice as the second phase will soon commence to make more availability visible.

The statement also added that President Tinubu is rounding up to soon release 42,000 metric tonnes of assorted food commodities to the vulnerable population in the country as effort is on top gear in seven locations of strategic grain reserve where the bagging of these items are going for onward delivery to National Emergency Management Agency ( NEMA) by the Federal Ministry of Agriculture and Food Security ( FMAFS).

It was noted in the statement that prices of food items have downwardly responded to the President's plans in view of his purported food commodities release to the vulnerable people as effort to cushion hardship and inflation effects.

Read the full text of the press release below

Update on Tinubu administration’s efforts to ramp up  food supply in the country

The  Tinubu administration  through the Federal Ministry of Agriculture and Food Security is in the final stages of releasing 42,000 metric tonnes of assorted food commodities to support the vulnerable population across the country. 

The grains in seven locations of strategic reserve, are now being bagged for onward delivery to the National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA). The need to bag the grains, caused the delay as the bags were freshly ordered by government. 

Nigerians will not need to pay for the  grain bags, as they are  free.

This  will be complemented by the 60,000 metric tonnes of milled rice to be purchased by the Federal Government from the Mega Rice Millers. 

Already, with the announcement of the impending releases of food commodities from the Strategic Reserve, there is a noticeable reduction in commodity prices across major grains markets in the country, Minister of Agriculture, Senator  Abubakar Kyari said

The Federal Government is also ramping up food production by boosting Dry Season Farming under the National Agricultural Growth Scheme Agro-Pocket (NAGS-AP) Project .

The First Phase of the Dry Season Farming was launched in November, 2023.

It focuses on the cultivation of wheat across 15 wheat-producing states, covering 118,657 hectares and involving 107,429 farmers. 

“The fields are green now and harvest will commence in a matter of weeks”, Kyari said.

“There are fantastic reports of growth of wheat from Jigawa State, which is now targeting harvest from about 50,000 hectares, 10,000 hectares more than initially allotted under the programme.

Phase 2 of the Dry Season Farming will commence soon, across all 36 states of Nigeria and FCT.

It will cover rice, maize, and cassava. 

“For rice, the target is 250,000 hectares involving 500,000 farmers with the expected output of 1 million metric tons of paddy rice.  

“For maize, we are cultivating 55,000 hectares with 110,000 farmers thereby adding 165,000 metric tons to national maize production while for cassava, we are doing 35,000 hectares with 70,000 farmers to produce 525,000 metric tons of cassava.

“The NAGS-AP Project offers a 50% subsidy. However, the Federal Government is providing additional support for Phase 2, which will bring aggregate subsidy to about 93 %  to farmers cultivating the crops. 

“Also various governors are showing strong support, to further enhance the subsidy. 

Additionally, solar-powered water pumps for irrigation, provided by the Federal Government, are being deployed to aid the upcoming phase of the programme.

Update released by 

Bayo Onanuga

Special Adviser to the President on Information And Strategy