Experts have urged the federal government to improve agricultural interventions to resolve the crisis, and reactions have continued to follow the worsening situation of food prices across the nation.
Keep in mind that the prices of beans, rice, tomatoes, onions, sliced bread, palm/vegetable oil, and the National Bureau of Statistics Food Prices Watch Report for October all increased by 2.15 percent;This indicates that food costs increased by 2.15 percent in October.
In October, Nigeria’s inflation rate increased to 21.09 percent, up from 20.77 percent in 2022, as 133 million people experienced severe deprivation.
Frail money related strategies, non-accessibility of unfamiliar trade, instability, insufficient agrarian motivators, unfortunate street foundation and a few other monetary difficulties are purposes for the country’s expansion rate.
Mr. Idakolo Gbolade, a specialist in financial inclusion and wealth management, stated, in response to the widespread rise in food prices, that the rising cost of transportation had the opposite effect on food prices nationwide.
In order to lower food costs in Nigeria, he called for increasing government agricultural intervention.
Additionally, he argued that Nigerians should prioritize basic, subsistence farming now.
According to him, “transportation costs and logistics charges for food items transported from the North are the cause of the rise in the cost of food prices from the South.”The significant expense can likewise be credited to security challenges experienced out and about and atmospheric conditions like flooding, which impacted yields and collect.
“The government should enhance the security of farm produce being transported and improve its interventions on various agricultural projects across the North and South.
“Various initiatives that would make seasonal food items available throughout the year rather than being thrown away during their season should also be implemented to improve the preservation of perishable food items.
“Nigerians should also adopt the subsistence farming culture, cultivating essential food crops in our gardens and other available spaces to cut food costs.
“Nigerians ought to likewise investigate different capacity procedures to guarantee that food bought when they are in season can be saved for quite a while.”
In a similar vein, Prof. Godwin Oyedokun, dean of Accounting and Financial Development at Lead City University in Ibadan, called on the federal government to provide incentives to states in the south.
If you look at our culture in the southern part of Nigeria, it stands to reason that we have a smaller land mass than the northern part.The majority of land in the North is used for large-scale agriculture.The North also has a higher proportion of cow, goat, and meat.This assumed that the North was largely the South’s primary source of food.Price is determined by demand and supply forces;The amount of food that reaches the south will decrease if the food that is supposed to move from the north to the south is hindered by insecurity, bad roads, flooding, and other factors.
There will be a lot of competition for the few foods that are available in the South, which will cause prices to rise there.The South’s food suppliers will become kings as a result of this;Food prices will undoubtedly rise as a result of the market’s reaction.The arrangement is that the accessible farming exercises in the South ought to be upgraded.
He stated, “Government needs to give South states incentives like it promotes cattle rearing in the North.”