Minister of Agriculture and Food Security, Senator Abubakar Kyari, has assured Nigerians of the availability of rice in the country, highlighting that food scarcity is no longer a concern under the current administration.
Speaking at the Ministerial Sectoral Press Briefings, organized to mark the first anniversary of Chief Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s administration, Kyari noted that while rice availability is secure, affordability remains a significant issue.
Minister Kyari emphasized that despite global challenges such as COVID-19, floods, and the Naira redesign affecting farmers’ access to cash and subsequent cultivation, the government has managed to maintain rice production levels without importing a single cup since taking office.
The minister stated, “COVID-19 was a major issue globally, flood, Naira redesign and so on and so forth, where farmers did not have access to cash.
“They had to slash and get a little and they couldn’t cultivate the following year in 2023. But when we came, I received a lot of complaints that there will not be rice for Christmas. It was a huge alarm.
“So we looked at it and called all our agencies, called our people out there in the market …and they told us they were going to have a marginal increase in the production of rice compared to the previous year.
“So we decided not to raise that alarm. Christmas has come and gone. There was no cry that there was no rice. But there was a cry about the affordability of rice but the issue of availability did not come to question.
Speaking further, Minister Kyari articulated, “Then again, January, February 2024 approached faster. Then we were told Ramadan and Lent were approaching faster, then again we were told, there’ll be no rice for Ramadan, there’ll be rice for Lent.
“There’ll be no rice for Easter, there’ll be no rice for Sallah. Ramadan, Easter have passed and we did not import a cup of rice. There is availability but the question could be affordability.
“Again, the same topic is coming up again. We’ve seen foreign agencies…yes there’s a circle of seasons that would come around August and September. It’s something that is there. It usually happens. We’ve wrapped up production.
“There are targeted interventions. World Food Programme for instance, would go to market with $100m to buy food for humanitarian purposes. We stopped them last year.
“Imagine the World Food Programme going into the market with $100m and the Ministry of Agriculture and Food Production which has N75b in its budget to buy and reserve, that would spike the food crisis in the market.
“We stopped them and asked them to put that fund into production. Don’t come to us. Go and devise a method where you can invest and obtain from the farm. There is still harvest going on now for rice in Jigawa, Kebbi, Borno, Kano…”
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