Of all the aspects of the socio-economic life of Nigerians affected by the record-high inflation rate that is now 28.92 per cent, none has in recent times put citizens under pressure as much as the high cost of food items. According to the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS), food inflation hit 33.93 per cent in December 2023, rising 10.18 per cent from 23.75 per cent in December 2022.
While food prices have risen every single month over the past two years, the steep rise in food inflation between December 2022 and December 2023 has been occasioned by the federal government’s complete withdrawal from fuel subsidy in June last year. A recent media report showed that the unceasing skyrocketing prices of foodstuffs could, if not halted, become a source of acute hunger for many families in the country. In the 2023 Global Hunger Index, Nigeria with 28.3 per cent ranked 109th among 125 countries.
The current inflation trend on food commodities is, indeed, worrisome and dangerous for the nation. Almost on a daily basis, life gets more difficult for most Nigerians, a situation that could worsen further as Ramadan approaches. The country’s collective agenda for development and the renewed hope for advancement in the quality of life lived by the over 200 million population would not go beyond mere wish if the majority cannot feed well.
The minimum wage of N30,000 per month, today, takes workers nowhere. The general rule of thumb for determining food affordability is that an average meal should cost no more than a worker’s income per hour, which within the current national minimum wage is N187.5 only. Where in Nigeria does an average meal costs N187.5? An average Nigerian worker with a family of four today would need to spend more than half of their monthly income on food, leaving very little for healthcare, transportation, rent, children school fees, and utility bills.
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The country benefits in various ways when the generality of citizens can afford food; a basic necessity of life. Health wise, cheap food which increases citizen’s access to a balanced diet helps to check malnutrition, undernutrition, and starvation. People live healthier lives when they feed well. When citizens are well-fed and healthy, the government spends less on medical services, particularly at the primary healthcare level. Within the context of the cost of production, a healthy population is the greatest economic asset for a nation.
Affordability of food is strategic to national security. Peace and political stability are often guaranteed when the majority of its citizens can afford three square meals comfortably from their incomes. People are unhappy and angry each time they are hungry. Agrarian crisis, anywhere in the world, is the worst threat to peace, governance, and indeed human existence. In late April and May 1775, high prices of food in France provoked anger in communities of the Paris Basin that culminated in over 300 riots later to be known as the flour war.
The need, therefore, to provide an enabling environment for agriculture to thrive in Nigeria, mainly through crop and animal production, cannot be over-emphasised. With the greater percentage of Nigeria’s landmass arable, the country only requires the political will to prioritise and support agriculture not only to make food cheap for its citizens but also the capacity to reduce the country’s poverty and unemployment rates. This, however, requires strategic planning and full commitment.
For example, the government should, as a deliberate policy, subsidise fertiliser and farm implements. We encourage Nigeria to fulfil its partnership agreement signed with Morocco to build a $1.3bn fertiliser plant so that the 2025 target set for commencement of operations will be realised. Government must be decisive in dealing with all the security threats to farmers and farming. Because cheap food is not just about food production, availability, and intake, road networks, especially in Nigeria’s rural communities should be improved upon to ease access of farm produce to the markets. Climate change is gradually altering traditional farming activities around the world; a good reason to bring back and strengthen the old glory of dry-season farming by revitalising the moribund river basin authorities in concrete terms.
The Bank of Agriculture should ease real farmers’ access to credit facilities. Since the challenges of food production, marketing, and demand are closely linked and require an integrated solution on all three fronts, we call on the government to re-establish marketing boards in view of all the benefits they offer to farmers and consumers. Marketing boards, which fight artificial market forces and forestall unwholesome activities of middlemen have the mandate to buy excess farm produce from farmers in order to flood the markets with the reserves and ensure price stability once food prices begin to rise.
With all its human and material endowments, Nigeria, we believe, can give its population cheap food.
