A task force on the prices of foodstuffs?

IN a move suggestive of official admission of the palpable hunger and misery in the land, the Federal Government recently approved the setting up of a Presidential Task Force on the rising cost of food items in Nigeria. It is very interesting that the Federal Government has finally woken up from its protracted slumber to acknowledge the obvious reality that many Nigerians are hungry. Nonetheless, it is better late than never.  The task force, an inter-ministerial group comprising the ministers of Agriculture and Rural Development, Finance, Industry, Trade and Development, Transportation, Water Resources and Labour and Employment, is to urgently consider measures that would ensure steady flow of produce to the market and reverse the recent price increases of food items, and  has a week to submit its report.

This is a soothing development which many a Nigerian hopes is not a mere political action to buy time and distract the attention of the ordinary Nigerians from expressing the pain and anger that they currently feel. It is equally hoped that it is not within official contemplation to go round the markets to force down the prices of food items by fiat.  No one controls the prices of what (s)he does not produce. It is, therefore, expected that the goal of the task force will be reached through official facilitation and support to participants in the agriculture value chain rather than through coercion. Naturally, not a few discerning Nigerians are concerned about the composition of the task force and the time frame allotted to it. It is believed in some quarters that members of the task force are somewhat detached from the reality in the market place and so may not be in a position to truly capture the enormity of the challenges by way of empathy.  Again, the time frame within which the task force is to complete its assignment was considered to be rather short. These are, indeed, genuine concerns except the government had already zeroed in on specific issues and bottlenecks that the task force is expected to resolve.  In that case, the high profile membership of the task force and the seemingly limited time assigned to it may not matter since it would not be carrying out fresh problem identification surveys.

In other words, the mandate of  the task force will be  to provide tactical options that will put paid to a paradox of waste of farm produce while the country is at the same time contending with rising cost of food items. It is urged, however, that those tactical options should ultimately find a place in the overall strategic direction for sustainable availability and affordability of food items in Nigeria.

While resolution of transportation issues may appear to be low hanging fruits, the underlying challenges far exceed transportation. Even the triggering factors of transportation and distribution challenges are fundamental in nature. There is the foreign exchange policy and the meteoric rise in the cost of agricultural production and distribution inputs with foreign exchange component. For instance, the prices of tractors, cutlasses, hoes and other farm implements have gone up, and so have the prices of trucks and spare parts as well as diesel which are critical inputs in the movement of farm produce. Again, storage and processing facilities have become more expensive to  procure, resulting not only in post-harvest wastages but also future production cutback by farmers.

In addition to the foregoing, for almost three years, there has been virtual absence of the contributions of the largely agrarian population of the North-East in the national agricultural production matrix owing to Boko Haram crisis. Yet, in the face of this obvious demand–supply gap of foodstuffs, the Federal Government has imposed restrictions on importation of rice through prohibition of its import through land borders and increase in the tariff on consignments that come via the seaports. All these issues around economic management were bound to impact the prices of foodstuffs and other merchandise and they really did.

It is instructive to mention that the rising cost of foodstuffs simply reflects the challenges in the economy as a whole and not just in the agricultural sector alone. The Federal Government, in defiance of economic logic, is unwilling to float the naira and, as a consequence, foreign direct investment has virtually dried up.  The year 2016 inflow was a whopping 47 per cent less than that of 2015. Industries are closing down. Strangely, Nigeria reportedly has seven exchange rate polices which is unprecedented and is a misnomer in a free market economy.  There is something wrong with the nation’s economic policy prescriptions and their implementation strategies and the earlier the team in charge summons the courage to do what is economically right, the better. Thus, beyond coming up with some palliative measures to bring immediate succour to the masses, it is difficult to see how  the  seven-man task force will provide  sustainable solutions to the problem of availability and affordability of foodstuffs in Nigeria.