The consistently rising food inflation has driven Nigeria’s inflation figures to 22.22 percent for the month of April 2023 from the 16.82 percent it was the same period last year.
The latest inflation figures released by the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) shows that the Food and Non-Alcoholic Beverages contributed 11.51 percent to the overall inflation figures.
Food inflation rate in April 2023, according to NBS was 24.61 percent on a year-on-year basis, which was 6.24 percent points higher compared to the 18.37 percent recorded in April 2022.
On a month-on-month basis, the food inflation rate in April 2023 was 2.13 percent, this was 0.06 percent points higher compared to the rate recorded in March 2023 which was 2.07 percent.
The report says the rise in food inflation on a year-on-year basis was caused by increases in prices of Oil and fat, Bread and cereals, Fish, Potatoes, Yam and other tubers, Fruits, Meat, Vegetable, and Spirits.
President All Farmers Association of Nigeria (AFAN), Arc. Kabir Ibrahim who spoke with The Guardian in a telephone interview said the persistent rise in food prices is driving more families into hunger
According to him, though food inflation is a global one because of the unabated effects of COVID 19 and the Russia-Ukraine conflict, Nigeria’s case is exacerbated by the weak purchasing power of the National currency and insecurity that has forced farmers to abandon their farms.
In his words, “The threat to food security from the days of COVID 19 is still there and it is global, but more importantly, the purchasing power of our currency is still very low, and of course we had flooding last year that swept away many farmlands.
“The cost of inputs, especially fertilisers, has gone beyond the reach of an average Farmer. Again our infrastructure like power to preserve perishable food items is a problem. There is also high cost of transportation of the agricultural produce from where they are produced to the market due to bad roads and high cost of diesel. All these add to the cost of the produce in the market.”
He said the rising food prices have increased the pressure on families as they struggle with other socio-economic challenges.
He advised that the way out of the problem is to revamp the entire economy and make more investments in the agricultural sector to encourage more people to go into farming.
“Again we must subsidise inputs especially seeds, we must also go into mechanisation because the cost of Labour is too high,” he said.
Managing Director, Agriseedco, a seed production company, Mr. Kolade Dada, said tow things are the major drivers of food inflation. According to him, “Many farmers have abandoned their farms because of insecurity. This has a very serious impact on the volume of food produced in this country. For instance, last year, Maize production dropped by 9.6 percent YoY in terms of area of land under cultivation.
“The second one is the rising input cost. What we have seen is that farmers are moving from crops that are highly input dependent to crops that are low input dependent, crops like sorghum are doing well but Maize has suffered because it is highly input dependent.”
Mr. Dada said the way out is for government to take more stringent measures against insecurity and also to subsidise inputs for smallholder farmers as well as regulate the price of commodities so that farmers can make profit for their effort.
For the National President, Oil Palm Producers Association of Nigeria, Comrade Alphonsus Inyang, everything centres on policy. “If there is no target, and no policy, you are going nowhere,” he said.
Inyang noted that after the Agricultural Transformation Agenda (ATA), of the Jonathan administration, which was dumped by the Buhari administration, there has been no policy that gives direction to the agricultural sector.
According to Inyang, “Everything concerning agriculture under this administration has been politics. The Governor of the CBN became the Minister of Agriculture who made so much noise about rice and Maize pyramids and how Nigeria now produces more rice than Thailand and how rice milling factories in Thailand are closing shop because of the milling factories in Nigeria. All those were politics. Until we have an agricultural policy that focuses on developing the small holder farmers, taking inputs directly to them and empowering them to produce for everybody, we go nowhere.”