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From Juliana Taiwo-Obalonye, Abuja
The Federal Government has approved the release of 40,000 metric tons of various grains from the Strategic Grains Reserve (SGR) to cushion the effect of high food prices in the country.
Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development, Abubakar Mahmud, said President Muhammadu Buhari gave the directive after he summoned him to the State House, Abuja.
He said the Humanitarian Affairs, Disaster Management and Social Development Ministry would handle the distribution of 12,000 metric tons. He added that the same precess deployed during the COVID-19 lockdown in 2020 to distribute 70,000 metric tons of assorted food items across some states and the Federal Capital Territory would be used.
He said in compliance with the presidential directive, grains were readily available for immediate distribution.
Briefing State House Correspondents of the meeting with Buhari said: “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.”
Asked the type of grains to be released and the locations of the reserved, Mahmud said: “Assorted grains. Usually we have sorghum, maize, millet and the rest of them, we will be releasing an assortment of grains that are in our reserves.
“They (grains) are located across the entire country in all probably the six geopolitical zones, we have grain silos.”
On how deeply the issue of insecurity has affected food security, the minister 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 where it has some security implication, yes, it may have a little drop, but government is doing everything humanly possible to make sure 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 that sometimes provide some kind of security cover that will make sure food production does not stop. I can assure you we don’t have problems with food production at this point.”
Asked if there was a list of beneficiaries, he said: “If you remember very well, during the COVID-19 pandemic, Mr. President also directed and approved the release of grains, the grains were released and distributed. So, those structures of distribution, both from the humanitarian and ministry of agriculture, the same structures that we used. However, whatever you do, take a look, and ask, is there any area for improvement? Is there any area that you can change and restructure? We’ll take that into consideration and distribute the grains as was done in the past?”
On allegations that the Federal Government gives more support to agriculture in the North than in the South, Mahmud said: “You talked about the government not giving adequate attention to agriculture in the South. No, that’s not true. That’s far from the truth. In the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development, we have programmes, all kinds of programmes across the country; North, South and Central. So, this is not true.”
On how the Russian invasion of Ukraine has affected the importation of wheat, he said: “The Russian/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
National Agricultural Land Development Authority (NALDA), NCFI, all those that are concerned, the Central Bank. We have met about two to three times to discuss the issue of Ukraine. Nigeria imports grains and other agricultural input from Ukraine, we are making sure we look inwards and outwards to ensure this conflict does not affect our agricultural sector.”
