The Minister of Agriculture and Food Security, Senator Abubakar Kyari, has said that food prices in Nigeria have dropped following a series of interventions by President Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s administration.
From reports stated on Friday, Kyari explained that the government adopted a mix of production support and temporary importation to tackle what he described as “structural imbalances” in the agricultural sector.
He noted that President Tinubu inherited a difficult situation in 2023, which prompted the declaration of a state of emergency on food security in July of that year. According to him, the declaration served as a clarion call to stabilise the sector and boost supply.
“Food security is about supply and demand. At the time, there was low availability, so the government had to step in to support production while allowing imports to fill the gap,” Kyari said. “For instance, in rice, we had about a 15 per cent shortfall between local output and demand.”
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Kyari clarified that the import window was temporary and lasted only six months, stressing that it was not enough to discourage local farmers. He highlighted complementary measures such as fertiliser support.
“President Tinubu directed the Central Bank to release two million bags of fertiliser to farmers at no cost. In addition, farmers also received fertiliser subsidies of up to 50 per cent,” the minister said.
He added that these interventions significantly boosted production in 2024 and had begun to reflect in market prices.
“I can say boldly that food prices have crashed,” Kyari declared, in response to Tinubu’s recent directive to the Federal Executive Council (FEC) to adopt fresh measures to further reduce costs.
