Nigeria’s food importation policy could destroy agriculture sector – Adesina
The President of the African Development Bank Group, Dr. Akinwumi Adesina, has expressed concern that Nigeria’s government’s decision to permit massive food imports could jeopardize the country’s agricultural sector.
This comes after Nigeria’s Minister for Agriculture, Abubakar Kyari, announced on July 10 that the Federal Government would suspend duties, tariffs, and taxes on the importation of maize, husked brown rice, wheat, and cowpeas through the country’s land and sea borders for 150 days.
Speaking on the theme ‘Food security and financial sustainability in Africa: The role of the Church’, Adesina said Nigeria “must feed itself with pride,” warning, “a nation that depends on others to feed itself, is independent only in name.”
He warned that the policy could undermine all the hard work and private investments that have gone into Nigeria’s agriculture sector.
What Adesina said:
“Nigeria cannot rely on the importation of food to stabilize prices. Nigeria should be producing more food to stabilize food prices, while creating jobs and reducing foreign exchange spending, that will further help stabilize the Naira,”
“Nigeria cannot import its way out of food insecurity,” he said, “Nigeria must not be turned into a food import-dependent nation,” said the AfDB president.
According to a report by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), Nigeria tops the list of countries with the highest number of people in acute food insecurity, with 31.8 million individuals affected, placing it at the top of the global rankings. Africa also accounts for nearly a third of the more than 780 million people worldwide who are hungry.
This situation is paradoxical for a continent that possesses 65 per cent of the world’s uncultivated arable land, which has the potential to feed 9.5 billion people by 2050.
“It is clear therefore that unless we transform agriculture, Africa cannot eliminate poverty,” he insisted.
What Africa does with agriculture will determine the future of food in the world. “Essentially, food is money. The size of the food and agriculture market in Africa will reach $1 trillion by 2030,” Adesina said.