|
|
Nigeria: FG Approves N80bn for Rice Importation
 |
|
|||||||||
|
||||||||||
Leadership (Abuja)
30 April 2008
Posted to the web 30 April 2008
Golu Timothy
Apparently as a first step towards addressing the current food crisis in the country, the Federal Government has approved the release of a whopping N80 billion for the importation of rice into the country.
As part of measures to achieve same results, the government has also asked state governments and the FCT to immediately make available foodstuffs in the respective grains reserve to the people.
The decision was the result of an emergency meeting of President Umaru Musa Yar'Adua with the 36 state governors in Abuja yesterday. The money is to be used to import 500,000 metric tons of the arable farm produce into the country.
The money is to be sourced from the Natural Resources Funds of the country and is also expected to mitigate the effects of the global food crisis which has sparked widespread protests in some parts of the world. It represents 1.68% of deduction made from the federation account for the special Natural Resources Funds to intervene in situations such as this.
The meeting was at the instance of the president who returned last week from a medical check-up in Germany.
It was Yar'Adua's first public assignment since his return and was attended by all the 36 governors or their representatives as well as the ministers of agriculture and water resources and the attorney general and minister of justice.
Addressing State House correspondents after the meeting, the governor of Ondo State, Chief Olusegun Agagu, said apart from the issue of food security, the meeting also deliberated on the power stations in the country.
He said apart from the money released for the importation of the rice, government equally approved the release of 11,000 metric tones of grain from the strategic grain reserve of the Federal Government.
Agagu, who was flanked by the governors of Kano and Akwa Ibom, Ibrahim Shekarau and Godswill Akpabio respectively, as well as the minister of agriculture and water resources, Dr Abba Sayyadi Ruma, said government's decision was a pre-emptive measure, pointing out that Nigeria cannot wait until it is hit by the worldwide food crisis before it can take measures.
He said, "After very elaborate discussion and overview of the discussion, the following facts emerged: that there is a global food crisis affecting different countries of the world at different levels.
"Although we cannot say there is famine in the land yet, the prices of food- stuff are going up and the availability in the number of places is diminishing and that as a responsive government we must take immediate measures to address this ugly trend. These measures will be implemented in the short term, medium and long term to ensure that Nigerians do not starve. In summary the key decisions we took are:
"That there should be additional release from the strategic grain reserve of the country to augment supply, create more availability and therefore stem the alarming increase in food prices. We use the word additional because some quantum (40 million metric tones) had been released earlier but because it is now reaching an emergency situation we still have 11,000 metric tones available and that it will be released immediately.
"That to save the situation and further ameliorate our conditions, government will import 500,000 metric tones of rice immediately in addition to what is available at home now and in addition to what we are producing at home now because we all know that there are several states in the country that are rice-growing, so we will encourage our people who are rice-growing to grow more, the rains are here and rice takes about two to three months to mature, our people will be encouraged to grow more. But because we envisage already some shortfall in supply we therefore took a decision to import 500,000 metric tones of rice to be sold to our people at subsidized rates. These two measures are for the immediate term to dampen the escalating price in the market and make food available to our people. People can shift from other foodstuff that is expensive to rice. This is short term and we can't live on this forever.
"For the medium term, that is after three months, a very dramatic decision was taken, that as a nation we take very drastic possible revolutionary steps to address the challenge of food production and food security in Nigeria. In this regard the Federal Government, through the Ministry of Agriculture and Water Resources, will collaborate with the states and research institutes to ensure that in the medium to long term Nigeria will not produce only enough food for herself but should be in a position to export to other countries."
"Mr. President announced that the 1.68 per cent from the federation account be dedicated to the Natural Resources Development fund towards the development of agriculture and production of food over the next four years.
"As at now, the account has N80 billion and as the account grows every year through the contribution of 1.68 per cent from the federation account, it will be dedicated to ensuring that in the medium and long term Nigeria produces enough food for herself and to export.
|
"The details of this programme will be worked out between the Ministry of Agriculture and Water Resources and state governors within a short period of time."
More twenty years ago, Nigeria was embarked in Rice importation to feed her citizens during austere time like this when there was a shortage of food. Again this is another knee jerk reaction that would only put money in the pocket of the operatives of the project reminiscent of the Dr. Umaru Dikko of the Shagari era.
The sorry lesson in all this is that Nigeria has not learned a lesson. Any wise nation like China did would have shut their doors and implemented a blue print to grow the major stable food to avert this kind squalor that Nigeria... [Read Full Text]
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Copyright © 2008 Leadership. All rights reserved. Distributed by AllAfrica Global Media (allAfrica.com). To contact the copyright holder directly for corrections -- or for permission to republish or make other authorized use of this material, click here. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Make allAfrica.com your home page | RSS Feed | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Top | Site Guide | Who We Are | Advertising | Search | Subscribe | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Questions or Comments? Contact us. Read our Privacy Statement. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
