The Federal Government has said it was committed to ensuring food availability and affordability for the citizens through all necessary means.
The Minister of Agriculture and Food Security, Abubakar Kyari, said food import was not a bad policy, noting that there are few countries in the world that have food sovereignty.
Naijaonpoint reported that the President of the African Development Bank, Akinwumi Adesina, condemned the government’s food import policy. He said it was a depressing initiative and would affect the nation’s farmers.
In an interview with Arise News, on Friday night, Kyari noted that when Adesina was Minister of Agriculture under former President Goodluck Jonathan, he approved food importation.
“Well everyone has his own opinion. But I would also say, go back when Adesina was minister, were there imports? Yes, there were. Who did it? Him. He authorized importation of food. So, and this was how many years ago? So what had changed? What had changed? So, I don’t know why he’s talking. And there is no country in this world, really. Only a few, only a few that have food sovereignty. Only a few in this world.
“So, you can export some and import some. That’s what the game is sometimes. But let us not miss the fact. Let us not run away from the issue at hand,” he said.
Kyari said what President Bola Tinubu was committed to was making food available and affordable to Nigerians. He noted that the President was concerned about the current food inflation.
He further explained that the current high cost of food items could be traced to logistics and transportation.
“What President Bola Tinubu intends to do, and what he wants for Nigeria, and what everybody in this field wants, is lower prices. Affordability of nutritious food.
“I think this is what we all need to do. All of us need to coalesce and work together and see how best we can. Production, there is production. Yes, with some deficit. But you would agree with me there is availability. But also, the affordability is what is of great concern.
“The food inflation is of what is great concern to Mr. President and to everybody in this field. I have sleepless nights trying to see, okay, what can we do? But mind you, where food is produced is not necessarily where it’s processed, and it’s not necessarily where it is consumed.
So, what do you have in between? There are linkages, of logistics linkages, that also have an impact on the prices. Production is going, but processing is also impacted by other things as well. Transportation is also impacted by other things,” he stated.
The Minister reaffirmed the government’s commitment to addressing food security issues in the country.