The Federal Government has acknowledged the issue of food insecurity in the country but reassured Nigerians that the situation is being addressed and that the prices of commodities will soon decrease.
Food inflation has surged to over 40 percent in recent months, according to data from the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS), pushing essential commodity prices beyond the reach of millions of Nigerians.
However, Minister of State for Agriculture Aliyu Abdullahi stated that several government programs are underway to reduce commodity prices. “You will see a lot of programs trying to dampen [reduce] the situation,” he said on Monday’s edition of Channels Television’s Sunrise Daily.
“Agriculture has a time frame. Currently, a lot of production is ongoing. We are in the rainy season, and if you look at the fields, there is a lot of cropping going on. Those crops will only translate to food after three months. Until then, this issue will persist,” Abdullahi explained.
The minister also highlighted that the country had previously relied heavily on rainy season farming. “We realized over the past few years that we have not been taking our dry season agriculture seriously,” he said, adding that the ministry is now addressing this issue.