Former Kano legislator criticises N1.4trillion on food import

 

A former house of representative member, at the National Assembly, Hon. Munir Babba Dan Agundi has described a jump from N10 billion to N1.4t for food import as too outrageous within three months.

Dan Agundi said this last Friday at Yar' Adua centre where the Federal Ministry of Agriculture and Food Security (FMAFS) hosted stakeholders into a quarterly engagement on the way forward for the sector's food sustainable.

The former house member, and a practising farmer said that the decision to take escalated food import with three months last year had negatively affected all government policies to ensure food sufficiency.

Dan Agundi said that the level of food imports between July and September, 2025 was heart troubling, especially at a time when Nigeria is expected to be moving toward food sufficiency.

He posited that proper consultations were not made on recent food importation that witnessed a huge jump from N10 billion to N1.4 trillion within just three months in last year.

The former lawmaker queried why the country is still importing rice despite years of efforts aimed at achieving local production sufficiency.

“ We shouldn’t still be talking about the importation of rice. By now, Nigeria should have moved beyond that" he said.

Dan Agundi however lamented over the loss of N35m  he incurred on the current rice season saying that he invested about ₦50m on the produce cultivation, but only recovered ₦15m. 

He stressed the need for timely and adequate funding of the sector in order to avert a looming food security in the country.

He noted also that the expected improvements in productivity are yet to materialize saying that " We believed this government would surpass previous administrations in achieving food sufficiency, but the changes we expected in agricultural productivity are not yet visible"