Nigeria declares state of emergency, plans for hectares farmland
By Babagana Jidda Kanempress
14th July 2023
Nigerian President Bola Tinubu has declared a state of emergency on food security as Government steps up efforts to curb food inflation after the removal of fuel subsidy.
President Tinubu also approved matters concerning availability and affordability of food and water as well as essential livelihood items, be included within the purview of the National Security Council.
This would be followed by an immediate release of fertilisers and grains to farmers and households to tackle the effects of the subsidy removal.
Special Adviser to the President on Special Duties, Communications and Strategy, Dele Alake, said on Thursday, after consultations with key stakeholders in the agricultural sector value chain at the Presidential Villa, Abuja.
According to Alake, “Mr. President is not unmindful of the rising cost of food and how it affects the citizens. While availability is not a problem, affordability has been a major issue for many Nigerians in all parts of the country.
“This has led to a significant drop in demand, thereby undermining the viability of the entire agriculture and food value chain.
“Accordingly, in line with this administration’s position on ensuring that the most vulnerable are supported, Mr. President has declared, with immediate effect, the following actions: That a state of emergency on food security be announced immediately, and that all matters pertaining to food and water availability and affordability, as essential livelihood items, be included within the purview of the National Security Council.”
Speaking further on the short, medium and long-term interventions, Alake said government plans to deploy some savings from the fuel subsidy removal into the agricultural sector, and revamping the agricultural sector.
He listed existing data which agriculture already accounts for about 35.21 per cent of employment in Nigeria (as at 2021).
“The target is to double this percentage to about 70 per cent in the long term,” he said .
Parts of the interventions include the immediate release of fertilizers and grains to farmers and households to curb the effects of the subsidy removal.
President Tinubu had on Thursday at the meeting with agriculture stakeholders declared that Nigeria could no longer afford seasonal farming.
“We can no longer afford to have farming downtimes,” Tinub said.
“Therefore, there must be an urgent synergy between the Ministry of Agriculture and the Ministry of Water Resources to ensure adequate irrigation of farmlands and to guarantee that food is produced all year round,” Tinubu said.
Alake revealed that 11 of Nigeria’s 12 river basins would be put to good use to facilitate irrigation and ensure the planting of crops during the dry season.
The irrigation schemes will “guarantee continuous farming production all year round to stem the seasonal glut and scarcity that we usually experience,” he said.
On the regulatory side, Alake disclosed that the FG would create a commodity board to monitor and control food prices.
“We shall create and support a National Commodity Board that will review and continuously assess food prices as well as maintain a strategic food reserve that will be used as a price stabilisation mechanism for critical grains and other food items. Through this board, the government will moderate spikes and dips in food prices,” he explained.
The National Commodity Exchange, seed companies, National Seed Council and Research institutes, microfinance banks, food processing/agric processing associations, private sector holders and prime anchors, smallholder farmers, crop associations and fertilizer producers, blenders and suppliers’ associations, are on board among others.
He said that government would engage its security architecture to protect farms and farmers to enable them to return to their farmlands without fear of attacks.
