• Spent N98tr ($628b) Food In 2007-2010
• Uses About N1 billion Per Day On Rice
AS the global community celebrates the World Food Day today, the grim food crisis in Nigeria has taken the centre stage at different fora across the country in the past weeks.
The dire situation is poignantly brought home by the hefty amount the country spends annually to import the most basic staple foods, including rice, fish, sugar and wheat.
Besides other sources, the Minister of Agriculture and Rural Resources, Dr. Akinwunmi Adesina and the Ondo State governor, Dr. Olusegun Mimiko, presented the alarming stats.
For instance, Nigeria spent N98 trillion ($628 billion) between 2007 and 2010 on importation of food into the country. This translates to N24 trillion yearly.
In 2010 alone, the country spent N632 billion on wheat; N356 billion on rice; N217 billion on sugar and N97 billion on fish.
While it produces only 500,000 metric tons of rice, Nigeria consumes 2.5 metric tons. Hence, it spends about N1 billion per day on rice alone.
Estimated annual fish demand for Nigeria is about 2.66 metric tons. Yet, the 2009 annual domestic production was about 0.78 metric tons with a supply-demand gap of about 1.88 metric tons.
Although livestock output in the country has been growing at six to seven per cent annually, it is unable to match the growth of demand due to poor nutrition, disease and poor breed, according to the Minister of Agriculture.
This has prompted sharp increases in the price of livestock and meat in the past five years.
Governor Mimiko summed up the facts on ground thus: “This is a clear departure from the reality of Nigeria in the 1960s when agriculture provided the main source of employment, income and foreign exchange earnings for Nigeria.
The advent of commercial oil exploitation in the mid 1970s, no doubt, heralded an era of decay for agricultural output in Nigeria.”
SOURCE: Guardian Newspaper, 16 October 2011. http://www.guardiannewsngr.com
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