President Muhammadu Buhari on Tuesday summoned the Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development, Muhammed Abubakar, and has directed him to release about 40,000 metric tonnes of assorted grains from the Strategic Grains Reserve (SGR).
The grains are being released to cushion the effects of rising prices of commodities, especially at these festive times of Easter and Ramadan.
The minister, who spoke to correspondents at the Presidential Villa, Abuja after meeting the president, revealed that 12,000 metric tonnes of the release will be given to the ministry of humanitarian, disaster management and social development for distribution.
He said the distribution will be done along the model used in the height of the COVID-19 lockdown.
The Minister stated: “I’m here this afternoon as a result of summoning by His Excellency, Mr President, President Muhammadu Buhari. He actually directed and approved the release of grains from our Strategic grain Reserve by the Federal Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development.
“This is to cushion the effect of some of the issues we are facing with high prices of commodities across the country and also to cushion these festivities; Ramadan, Easter, Salah so that there will be a little cushion for the people during these festivities.
“Not just us, the Federal Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development, but also that we’ll be giving some of these grains also to the Ministry of Humanitarian Affairs to also do the same distribution. The grain is coming from our Strategic Grains Reserve, as directed by Mr President.”
On the quantity to be released, he said: “In the first instance, 12,000 metric tonnes and then we’ll be releasing and certainly we will start with about 10,000 metric tonnes that we’ll hand over to the Humanitarian Ministry to do that, and then the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development will continue.
“So, I think in all there should be over 40,000 metric tonnes that will be released as we start the release of the grains.”
Abubakar said the assorted grains to be released from silos across the five geopolitical zones in the country will include sorghum, maize and millet.
The Minister affirmed that insecurity in parts of the country will affect food production but assured that everything necessary is being done to ensure that cultivation continues in other places.
Responding to a question, he said: “Certainly, some measure of insecurity might affect a bit of agriculture. However, as you can see, there’s really no sharp drop in productivity in agricultural production. There’s still food, and people are still cultivating in all parts of the country.
“Some of the areas which have some security implication, yes, it may have a little drop, but the government is doing everything humanly possible to make sure that production continues in other parts and even areas where there are issues, the government is doing whatever it takes.
“Like in the Ministry of Agriculture, we have Agro Rangers who sometimes provide some kind of security cover that will make sure food production does not stop. I can assure you that we don’t have problems with food production at this point.”
He also debunked claims that suggested that the South has not received equal attention with the North from the Federal Government in terms of support for agriculture.
Abubakar argued: “You talked about the government not giving adequate attention to agriculture in the South. No, that’s not true. That’s far away from the truth. In the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development, we have programmes, all kinds of programmes all across the country; north, south and central. So, this is not true.”
He also spoke on the effect of the Russia-Ukraine war on Nigeria’s food import, saying that the country is looking towards alternative nations to source goods previously imported from Ukraine.
He explained: “Yes indeed, the Russia-Ukraine conflict is an issue of concern. As a result of that, Mr President has directed that we sit and discuss and not just the Ministry of Agriculture, but NALDA, NCFI, all of those that are concerned, the Central Bank.
“We have met about two to three times to discuss the issue of Ukraine. Yes, indeed, Nigeria imports grains and other agricultural input from Ukraine. We are making sure that we look inwards and outwards to make sure this conflict does not affect our agricultural sector. Inwards, looking at fabrication of certain equipment that we can do.
“Also surveying and looking for areas that we can even produce our own fertilizer because we have the mineral deposits that are precursors to fertilizer production and also other places where we can import, apart from Ukraine, but the most important thing is to up our own agricultural production and this is without saying that no administration in recent times that has given the agriculture sector such an attention and funding as the current administration of His Excellency, President Muhammadu Buhari.”
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