Vice President Kashim Shettima has disclosed the Federal Government readiness to tackle food inflation in the country by establishing a National Commodity Board. In tackling price volatility, the board will be given the mandate to assess and regulate food prices as well as maintain a strategic food reserve for stabilizing prices of crucial grains and other food items.Shettima made this known during a two-day high-level strategic meeting on climate change, titled: “Climate resilience and food security: Nigeria’s vision for the future”. The Vice President said the two-day event is an attestation of Nigeria’s efforts at mitigating the effects of climate change and ensuring food security for Nigerians. The event was held at the Banquet Hall of the Presidential Villa, Abuja.According to a statement released by Stanley Nkwocha, Senior Special Assistant to the President on Media and Publicity, Office of the Vice President, Shettima said: “Our solution to the potential food crisis has become immediate, medium, and long-term strategies.
The short-term strategy entails revitalizing food supply through specific interventions like the distribution of fertilizers and grains to farmers and households to counteract the effects of subsidy removal; fostering collaboration between the Ministry of Agriculture and the Ministry of Water Resources for efficient farmland irrigation, ensuring year-round food production; and addressing price volatility by establishing a National Commodity Board.”Vice President Shettima explained the role of the board, and how it will ease the problem on the ground. According to him, “This board will continually assess and regulate food prices, maintaining a strategic food reserve for stabilizing prices of crucial grains and other food items,”However, a much more daunting challenge for food security in the country is the issue of security. The Commodity Board will handle only the products that come out of the farms. Currently, farmers have had to contend with bandits, terrorists, and kidnappers, among other outlaws. What that means is that the volume of what should have been received by the board will be greatly reduced by the activities of the outlaws who either kill the farmers or burn down the farms, thus making it impossible for harvest to be made towards enriching the board.
The Vice President said the government was not oblivious of this challenge. He said, “I wish to assure you that we will engage our security architecture to protect the farms and the farmers so that farmers can return to the farmlands without fear of attacks.”Shettima had another cheering news for the farmers in Nigeria. He said, “We won’t only make it safe for farmers to return to their farms, but we will also ensure the activation of land banks. There is currently 500,000 hectares of already mapped land that will be used to increase the availability of arable land for farming, which will immediately impact food output.”
