The National Coordinator, Zero Hunger Nigeria Commodity Association, Dr Tunde Arosanyin, on Wednesday advised the Federal Government to purchase and store farm produce from farmers to enhance the nation’s food security.
Arosanyin gave the advice in Abuja during an interview with newsmen.
He stressed the need for the Federal Government to purchase the produce in order to minimise post-harvest losses and motivate the farmers.
He added that essential excess commodities like rice, beans, maize, sorghum, millet, cowpea among others should be mopped up and put in silos to be sold to the public in times of scarcity.
‘‘If Government fails to do this, it means the farmers would be exposed to sell directly to people that are coming from Niger, Chad, Cameroon, Benin Republic and other neighbouring countries.
‘‘Though, we have been supporting them (neighboring countries) over the years; but it should be regulated so that we do not sell all our produce and then starve as a nation.
‘‘We should work with precise and accurate data on our population.
‘‘We must know our consumption capability, and if we are able to meet up our capability we can now sell our surplus,” Arosanyin said.
The national coordinator revealed that the measure would cushion the effects of the current inflation rate, which the National Bureau of Statistics put at about 18.3 percent.
He urged stakeholders to use the opportunity of the ongoing harvest period of crops by farmers to plan for the time when food is likely to be scarce, to forestall hunger.
Comments are closed.