President Bola Tinubu has declared a state of emergency on food security.
Dele Alake, the special adviser to the president on special duties, communications, and strategy, revealed this on Thursday.
He disclosed this as the outcome of a meeting held by Tinubu with stakeholders. The meeting centered around the agriculture and food production value-chain.
Alake shared information with journalists regarding the presidential intervention aimed at addressing food security, food pricing, and sustainability.
He outlined the action plan, which involves promptly providing farmers and households with fertilizers and grains. This according to him is to alleviate the impacts of subsidy removal.
Alake added that the president has approved the inclusion of food and water availability and affordability in the NSC.
“As a direct and immediate response to this crisis, we will deploy a number of initiatives in the coming weeks to reverse the inflationary trend and ensure continuous access to affordable food for ordinary Nigerians,” Alake stated.
“As with most emergencies, there are immediate, medium- and long-term interventions and solutions.
“In the immediate term, we intend to deploy some savings from the fuel subsidy removal into the Agricultural sector focusing on revamping the agricultural sector.
“In an earlier meeting with Agriculture Stakeholders (today), we drafted a memorandum of partnership between the government and the individual stakeholder representatives. It encompasses the decisions taken and actions proposed from our engagements.
The immediate intervention strategies are as follows:
1. We will immediately release fertilizers and grains to farmers and households to mitigate the effects of the subsidy removal.
2. The Ministry of Agriculture and the Ministry of Water Resources must urgently collaborate to ensure sufficient irrigation of farmlands and to ensure year-round food production.
As a country, Mr. President has made it clear that we can no be comfortable with seasonal farming. We can no longer afford to have farming down times.
3. We shall create and support a National Commodity Board that will review and continuously assess food prices as well as maintain a strategic food reserve that will be used as a price stabilisation mechanism for critical grains and other food items.
“Through this board, government will moderate spikes and dips in food prices.”