The Federal Government on Tuesday hinted at plans to establish a National Commodity Board to curtail the escalating food inflation in Nigeria.

Vice President Kashim Shettima, who revealed the plan, said in tackling price volatility, the board will be empowered to “continually assess and regulate food prices, maintaining a strategic food reserve for stabilising prices of crucial grains and other food items.”

Shettima said this when he declared open a two-day high-level strategic meeting on climate change, food systems, and resource mobilisation held at the Banquet Hall of the Presidential Villa, Abuja.

According to a statement signed by his Senior Special Assistant on Media and Communications, Stanley Nkwocha, the VP was delivering his address titled, “Climate Resilience and Food Security: Nigeria’s Vision for the Future,” saying the two-day event attests to Nigeria’s efforts at mitigating the effects of climate change and ensuring food security for Nigerians.

The statement is titled ‘Food Security: FG mulls commodity board to tackle price volatility, others.’

Describing food security as one of the eight areas of priority of the Tinubu presidency, the VP highlighted ongoing policy reforms to ensure food and water availability and affordability.

He explained, “Our solution to the potential food crisis has become immediate, medium, and long-term strategies.

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“The short-term strategy entails revitalising food supply through specific interventions like the distribution of fertilisers and grains to farmers and households to counteract the effects of subsidy removal; fostering collaboration between the Ministry of Agriculture and the Ministry of Water Resources for efficient farmland irrigation, ensuring year-round food production, and addressing price volatility by establishing a National Commodity Board.”

He said while the Tinubu administration is fully invested in restoring degraded land, plans are underway to “restore four million hectares, or nearly 10 million acres, of degraded lands within” the nation’s borders as its contribution to the AFR100 Initiative.

Shettima apprised participants about the government’s handling of the security challenges preventing farmers from returning to their farms.

“I wish to assure you that we will engage our security architecture to protect the farms and the farmers so that farmers can return to the farmlands without fear of attacks.

“We won’t only make it safe for farmers to return to their farms, but we will also ensure the activation of land banks.

“There are currently 500,000 hectares of already mapped land that will be used to increase the availability of arable land for farming, which will immediately impact food output,” he assured.

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The VP Shettima also revealed that the Tinubu administration is collaborating “with mechanisation companies to clear more forests and make them available for farming,” even as the Central Bank of Nigeria “will also continue to play a major role in funding the agricultural value chain.

He noted that the FG would deploy concessionary capital to the sector, especially towards fertiliser, processing, mechanisation, seeds, chemicals, equipment, feed, labour, among others.

“The concessionary will ensure food is always available and affordable, directly impacting Nigeria’s Human Capital Index.

“This administration is focused on ensuring the HCI numbers, which currently rank as the third lowest in the world, are improved for increased productivity,” he added.

Senator Shettima also restated frantic efforts by the administration to make agriculture attractive for the teeming youth population to  “create between 5 to 10 million more jobs for them within the agriculture value chain.”

He revealed that the FG would do this by working with the current 500,000 hectares of arable land and the several hundreds of thousands more farmlands to be developed in the medium term.

These efforts, the VP continued, are part of FG’s bid to actualise Sustainable Development Goal Two of “Zero hunger” and the African Union Agenda 2063, which aims to transform Africa into a global powerhouse of the future.

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“But we can’t achieve this unless we guarantee food security by building the capacity of smallholder farmers who account for about 88 percent of the total food production in Nigeria,” he further noted.

Therefore, he implored participants, including development partners, private investors, and the diplomatic community to ensure that the high-level engagement results in a positive outcome.

Also speaking at the event, the National Coordinator of NEPAD, Mrs. Gloria Akobundu, said the programme decided to convene the stakeholders’ forum to strengthen smallholder farmers in Nigeria as a way of addressing the food shortage problem in the country.

“We have gathered key stakeholders from across Nigeria and all over the world to commence the resource mobilization conversation for smallholder farmers in Nigeria and Africa and emphasize the urgency of action required in the face of the current and growing food crisis,” Akobundu remarked.

On his part, AU Chairman of Food System, Dr Ibrahim Maiyaki, said Africa’s future challenges in the next 20 to 30 years could be tackled today through three parameters: the continent’s know-how, expertise, and leadership.

Maiyaki called for strong regional integration through food transformation as well as boosting of productivity and economic growth rates through the right policies and governance objectives

Other dignitaries who attended the opening ceremony of the high-level engagement include Chairman, Senate Committee on Cooperation and Integration in Africa, Senator Nasiru Zangondaura; Chairman, Senate Committee on Information and National Orientation, Senator Eze Emeka; representatives of the Governors of Bauchi, Edo, Delta, and Plateau States, as well as members of the Diplomatic Corps.