Hardship: Vulnerable Nigerians To Get Grains Free Of Charge – Federal Govt

The federal government has announced plans to distribute the 42,000 tonnes of grains from its reserves to vulnerable Nigerians free of charge.

This decision was revealed by the minister of agriculture and food security, Abubakar Kyari, during the ministerial press briefing organised by the ministry of information to highlight President Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s Renewed Hope Agenda for the agricultural sector.

The explanation also followed days after the President ordered the release of the tonnes to ease the skyrocketing price of food items for Nigerians.

The federal government said that the grains will only target the needy segment of the population and that it has met with the National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA) and the Department of State Security (DSS) to provide the intelligence report on where the grains are needed the most.

The minister, who attributed the current food insecurity to the low food production during the 2023 wet season farming, cited challenges such as shrinking land mass and limited access to capital for farmers.

Kyari expressed concerns over double taxation and harassment faced by truck drivers transporting food items across states, stressing the need for a national policy to ensure food security.

In response to these challenges, the government further plans to implement the second phase of the National Agriculture Growth Scheme and Agro Project (NAGS-AP), with a focus on rice production.

According to the minister, the initiative aims to cultivate 150,000 hectares of land and provide intervention support to 300,000 farmers.

Kyari also outlined the support scheme, which includes subsidies on fertilizer and seeds, with the government covering one bag of fertilizer and the project covering one and a half bags per hectare.

Looking ahead, the minister said that the government aims to cultivate 500,000 metric tonnes of farmland during the wet season, targeting three million metric tonnes of rice production and 50,000 metric tonnes of maize.

Additionally, efforts will be made to produce 30,000 metric tonnes of cassava, he said.

Earlier, the minister of information and national orientation, Alhaji Mohammed Idris, declared the  federal government’s resolve to restore trust, confidence and credibility to public communications, by engaging in a timely, proactive and consistent fashion with stakeholders, across government, the media, private sector and international community, deploying all available platforms and media.

He said, “We have crafted and are implementing an agenda that is based on the following five pillars, in alignment with the Renewed Hope vision of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu.

Idris said the outlined agenda, in alignment with Tinubu’s Renewed Hope vision, encompasses the following pillars: restore trust, amplify policies and programmes, reorient national values, modernize technology and talent, and create an enabling environment for the media.