FG warns against hoarding of grains

By Chinyere Anyanwu

The Minister of Agriculture and Food Security, Abubakar Kyari, has sternly warned against hoarding and speculative trading as the Federal Government intensifies efforts to improve food production and distribution in the country.

The minister gave the warning at the weekend in Abuja at a special Ramadan lecture/Iftar organised by the Special Assistant to the President on Agriculture and Food Security, Mufutau Yinusa, in collaboration with the Asiwaju Project Beyond 2023, an NGO.

The lecture had as its theme, “Gratitude, Patience and Vision: Embracing Challenges with Optimism”.

The minister, who lamented the increasing cost of food items, said apart from insecurity that has affected agricultural production, the issue of hoarding has aggravated the problem.

“Some of the problems we are facing are also man made; hoarding, for instance, and speculative trade by commodity traders are also very huge.

“We have seen and discovered some warehouses in big commodity areas where even gates are removed and walls built just to hoard foodstuff inside. “So when you look at those things and say it’s Bola Tinubu, I think we are not being fair to the administration of this government. So we have to look inward, we all have a role to play,” he said. Kyari said the Federal Government would continue to work round the clock to ensure food security for the nation, while addressing the insecurity challenge frontally.

Earlier, Minister of State for Agriculture and Food Security, Aliyu Abdullahi, called on Muslims to use the Ramadan period to pray for the nation and its leaders.

He restated the Federal Government’s commitment to working with relevant stakeholders to address the economic challenges facing the nation.