Posted by Daniel. on 2 December, 2022 under Naija News
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Experts have urged the federal government to improve agricultural initiatives to address the challenge as reactions to the rising food prices across the nation have persisted.
Remember that on Wednesday, the National Bureau of Statistics released its Food Prices Watch Report for October, which revealed that the cost of sliced bread, tomatoes, onions, rice, beans, and palm/vegetable oil increased by 2.15 percent overall.
Earlier, Nigeria’s October inflation figure jumped to 21.09 percent from 20.77 percent in 2022 as 133 million citizens suffered intense deprivations.
Weak monetary policies, non-availability of foreign exchange, insecurity, inadequate agricultural incentives, poor road infrastructure and several other economic challenges are reasons behind the nation’s inflation rate.
Reacting to the endemic of food prices increase, a financial inclusion/wealth management expert, Mr Idakolo Gbolade, disclosed that the increasing cost of transportation inversely affected food prices across the country.
He called for improving government agricultural intervention to cut down on food prices in Nigeria.
Also, he advocated that now is the time for Nigerians to take subsistence, basic farming seriously.
He said:-
“The rise in the cost of food prices from the South is due to transportation cost and logistics charges for food items transported from the North. The high cost can also be attributed to security challenges encountered on the road and weather conditions like flooding, which affected crops and harvest.
“The government should improve its interventions on various agricultural projects across North and South and enhance the security of farm produce being transported.
“Preservation of perishable food items should also be improved upon with various initiatives that would make seasonal food items available all year round instead of being wasted during their season.
“Nigerians should also imbibe the culture of subsistence farming, farming of essential food items in our gardens and available spaces to reduce money spent on food items.
“Nigerians should also explore various storage techniques to ensure that food purchased when they are in season can be kept for a long time.â€