By Ikugbadi Oluwasegun
The Federal government has declared its readiness to address the rise in the prices of farm inputs to ensure further crash in the prices of food items in Nigeria.
The Government also described the recent crash in the prices of food items as a welcome development.
The Minister of Agriculture and Food Security, Abubakar Kyari, made the disclosure while speaking with Journalists at the sideline of a one day Public Hearing on the three Bills being considered by the Senate.
The three Bills are Cassava Flour, (Mandatory Inclusion into Flour Production) Establishment Bill 2023, The National Food Reserve Agency and For Related Matters and Rice Development Council of Nigeria, Establishment Bill 2024.
The Minister disclosed that government is seriously working on the prices of inputs such as fertilizer, irrigation, fuel among others stressing that government has been working on modalities to make farmers have unhindered access to credit and cheaper products.
On post-harvest losses, the Minister said the administration has already made a legacy project on post-harvest losses, which includes storage at the community level, not the silos that are situated in urban areas, but community levels.
In his opening remarks, the Chairman of the Senate Committee on Agriculture Production Services and Rural Development, Senator Salihu Mustapha said the three Bills stand at the core of the Country’s Agricultural Production noting that the bills will in no small measure transform the Agricultural Sector for economic diversification and development. The three Bills are currently at the second reading at the Senate, hence the convocation of the public hearing for inputs from relevant stakeholders.
