Amid the food crisis facing Nigeria, the Federal Government has been urged to create a presidential task force, comprising governors and security agencies to implement zero taxation on all food supplies across the country.
The co-founder and CEO of Greenbles Agtech, Oladapo Kasumu, who disclosed this in Lagos, said the step must come with heavy sanctions on those who flout such order.
He also urged government to invest heavily in mechanised farming, create enabling environment for private sector players through single-digit loans, and adequate infrastructure in farm settlements such as, roads, power, and shared storage facilities to reduce post-harvest loss.
While lamenting the causes of food inflation in the country, Kasumu said the decision by the government to float the naira without wide consultation, scenario planning, and putting in place adequate mitigation has created a string of unintended consequences of which one of such, is the CFA rapidly gaining value more than the Naira.
“This has made our food cheaper for our neighbours to buy, we now have a situation in our hands, and middlemen in the agriculture value chain seek to make brisk money by selling our food supplies to our neighbours, hence robbing us of the already inadequate food supply due to poor harvest because of insecurity.
“The menace of banditry that has gone on in the last 10 years; has now come full cycle. Farmers in our food baskets in the North have virtually abandoned their farms due to the fear of being slaughtered or at best being heavily taxed by marauding bandits.
“The issue of farmer-herder conflict has been a recurring decimal all over the country, with no end in sight. This has greatly affected farm yield and outputs. Once again, the last administration left this issue to fester for far too long. The present government inherited a near comatose or non-existent response to this menace, but nine months down the lane they have not shown the level of vigor and seriousness needed to fight this cankerworm,” he said.
Kasumu also lamented the decision of government to remove petroleum subsidy without putting in place adequate mitigation plans is another causal issue in the skyrocketing cost of food supply.
“Most of our food supply is distributed using road transportation, which is largely powered by petrol and diesel. A near 300 per cent increase in petrol prices in one fell swoop is bound to add to the cost of food supplies.”
He further called on the government to correlate between food security and national security. “The entire security architecture should be rejigged and sensitised on the protection of farmers, protecting farmers is more important than political VIPs.”
