dalili.com: December 2016

The government are telling us about their effort that lead to the so called bumper harvest, but they fail to put some factors into consideration, the following are the factors that lead to high cost of food, despite the so called bumper harvest;
   Clashes between farmers and herdsmen have affected farming activities in north central, arms bandits in north west and boko haram crisis in the north eastern state.
   Fertilizer was sold to farmers at the highest rate ever in the history of Nigeria, while government only succeeded in supporting less than one percent of Nigerian farmers.
   Lets assume there was bumper harvest as claim by the government, don't you know that Nigerian population must have increase in greater percentage than the production increase in the last farming season? our major problem is that we never put our growing population into consideration, that's why the government could be talking of increase in production without realizing the fact that there is also an increase in population, and that explain why food price is currently at a record high in the history of Nigeria.
   The government keep telling us about rice production in kebbi, jigawa and niger state, but the fact is that those farmers can only do little or nothing about the increase in food prices, if the government fail to provide lasting solution to the above mention challenges that limit food production in other part of the country especially the north central and north east.
   In general, we have low food production this 2016 farming season compare to previous season, when you consider the rise in population (consumers), high cost of fertilizer, flooding, clashes between farmers and herdsmen that make farming activities impossible in some areas and lack of investment by the government.
   Talking about investment, how can government that invest only less than two percent of annual national budget claim to have develop agriculture, when Maputo declaration approve 16percent of annual budget to agriculture? only 92billion have been budgeted in 2017 budget, which is less than 3percent of the total budget, and we talk of diversification to agriculture, when we spent trillions importing agricultural product, we want to use 92billion naira to feed 180million and even export, how possible could that be? base on my calculation, we budget 500milliom naira for 1million Nigerians as far as agricultural budget is concern, and 500million naira is equal to 1.2million dollars for 1million Nigerians, while the government budget 1.7billon naira for Aso Villa food in 2016 budget, which is almost 4million dollars, and you want to feed 1million nigerians with 1.2million dollars, how could that be possible? we should stop all the rhetoric about developing or diversifying to agriculture and face the reality, by investing the right allocation to agriculture and give it the needed attention. may God bless Nigeria