FG to distribute 42,000 tons of grains to vulnerable Nigerians

By Omeiza Bilal

Minister of Agriculture and Food Security, Senator Abubakar Kyari has revealed that the Federal Government is focused on making food available to Nigerians by crashing the price of food.

This, he said, would be done by giving the 42,000 tons of grains free to the needy while also enhancing the farmer’s ability to produce three million tons of rice during the dry season farming programme of the government.

Kyari stated this while addressing journalists on Wednesday during the Ministerial Press Briefing organised by the Federal Ministry of Information and Orientation at the National Press Centre in Abuja.

Kyari said the government is targeting about 2.5 to 3 million tons during the current dry season farming “because the space for rice during the dry season is not as much as that of the rainy season. What we are trying to do here is that if we don’t intervene that would fall short because of the support the government is giving to farmers.

“We are engaging 500,000 farmers to cultivate two tons of rice per farmer, some may do more than that, that amount to one million tons. And we believe that, when it comes to the wet season, we can do much more than that and increase the tonnage,” he explained.

Speaking on the promised 60,000 tons of grains as announced by the minister of Information, Kyari said the FG has met with the rice millers and other commodity producers as some of them have huge silos in their factory where food is stored. So we did some background checks of what is available.

“That is not to say that the farmers are going to produce 60,000 tons, no. They have them in storage, we are asking them to hand it over for the government to off-take, so that it can be given out to the population. We are still working out the modality on how it is going to be. As soon as we conclude on this, we will roll out the programme.

“We will give support to enhance productivity. We believe that even when it comes to the wet season, we can do more than that, we may even increase the tonnage.

“You will agree with me that today, anybody can go to the farm gate and buy anything, even if it is somebody from India or any other country, this is the issue we are facing today as a country,” he said.

He also spoke on the 42,000 metric tons of food reserve, saying the 42,000 metric tons to be given out to the needy is to crash the price of food and that these would be given free of charge. “That would go directly to the needy at no cost,” he said.

According to him, the grain would be distributed to the needy and the NEMA index would be rely upon to share the food.

“Double taxation of agro products by touts on the highway is a great concern. This is not only on the inter-state but within the state. We saw a two-hour drive in Kebbi state, where a truck was being charged N600,000. And immediately when I saw that, I reached out to the governor and he revealed that he has already tackled the issue. But we have to get a national policy because of the food aspect that is involved. We need to take drastic steps to stop this,” he said.

Earlier, the Minister of Information and National Orientation, Alhaji Mohammed Idris, said the ministry is determined to restore government trust in the citizen, hence the need for the briefing, saying Ministers would be invited regularly to address the nation on government programmes.

“We are enlightening and amplifying the programme of the president and we are implementing a series of national campaigns to re-orientate Nigerians in the values of Nigeria,” he said.

“This is even as he urged the media to be objective in their reportage of national issues.”