Nigeria spends N1trillion yearly importing basic food items – FG

 Nigeria spends N1trillion yearly importing basic food items – FG The Federal Government has said that since 2005, Nigeria has been spending N1 trillion annually on importation of basic food items such as wheat, rice, sugar and fish. The government also said

that Nigeria is the world largest importer of the United States’ hard red and white winter wheat with annual food import of N635 billion. This was disclosed by the Permanent Secretary, Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development, Mr Sonny Echono, at two-day “consultation, dialogue and validation workshop on food crisis prevention and management charter.” He said: “our country became net importer of food and major importer of wheat, rice, sugar and fish, and importation of these four commodities consumes over N1 trillion in foreign exchange every year since 2005.” Echono, who was represented by the Director, Department of Agriculture, Dr Damilola Emmanuel, also said, “the report of the Central Bank of Nigeria showed that Nigeria is the world’s largest importer of United States’ hard red and white winter wheat with annual food import of N635 billion. “It is also the second largest importer of rice to the tune of N700 billion in 2014, sugar N217 billion and fish N97 billion.” This was as he said “Nigeria’s food imports are growing at an unsustainable rate of 11 per cent per annum while relying on import of expensive food on global markets fuels domestic inflation, and Nigeria is importing what it can produce in abundance. “Import dependency is hurting Nigerian farmers, displacing local production and creating rising unemployment ,” even as he said stakeholders at the workshop had made some valid imputs that would help drive the nation’s agricultural sector to a higher level. According to him, the stakeholders suggested the “need to conceive food crisis with the concept of human rights in order to have permanent solutions to the recurrent perennial food crises. “Need to focus on the policy factor much more than the technology factor, ensuring policy best practices,” saying the workshop came up with the “need to give voice and vote to rural small holders to contribute to policy articulation, formulation, implementation, monitoring, evaluation and impact assessment. He also said “need to look inwards and explore the local capacity to produce and warehouse grains, animal and fisheries products-food reserve system and inclusion of women farmers, who were marginalised from targeted interventions by the government.”