According to
the Permanent Secretary, Federal Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development
(FMARD), Mr. Sonny Echono, Nigeria’s
food import is growing at an unsustainable rate of 11 per cent, while the
country had continued to rely on expensive foods from the global market. He made
this assertion known during the opening of a two-day workshop with the theme: ‘Food crisis prevention and management
charter’, which had representatives from the Economic Community of West African
States, United States Agency for International Development, United Kingdom’s
Department for International Development and other international agencies, held
at the headquarters of the FMARD in Abuja.
In Mr.
Echono’s own words: “Nigeria became a net importer of
food and major importer of wheat, rice, sugar and fish. Importation of these
four commodities consumes over N1tn in foreign exchange every year since 2005.
The Central Bank of Nigeria showed that Nigeria is the world’s largest importer
of United States hard red and white winter wheat, with an annual food import of
N635bn. It is also the second largest importer of rice (N700bn in 2014), sugar
(N217bn) and fish (N97bn). Nigeria’s food imports are growing at an
unsustainable rate of 11 per cent per annum, while reliance on the import of
expensive food in the global markets fuels domestic inflation, and Nigeria is
importing what it can produce in abundance. Import dependency is hurting
Nigerian farmers, displacing local production and creating rising
unemployment.”
According to
the permanent secretary, the nation has vast arable land for cultivation which must
be harnessed by stakeholders in order to effectively prevent a food crisis and
reduce imports to the barest minimum. He observed that Nigeria had about 174
million people to feed daily as well as its neighbours and added that it was
high time the nation started thinking of massive agricultural production for
export.
He said: “Nigeria has huge agricultural potential, with over 84
million hectares of arable land, of which only 40 per cent is cultivated; a
population of over 167 million, making it Africa’s largest market; and 230
billion cubic metres of water, making it one of the richest sources for agricultural
growth in the world. Agriculture contributes to rural people’s livelihood by
providing them with food and income. In addition, agricultural exports have
potential to contribute to the national economy through generating foreign
exchange and improving the balance of payments.”
No comments:
Post a Comment