Food Price Inflation In Kogi: CSO calls for government’s intervention

Story from Rabi’atu, Lokoja

The civil society organisation, Initiative for Grassroot Advancement (INGRA) has called on the Kogi state government to rise up to the occasion and stem the tide of unchecked inflation of food prices in the state.

In a statement issued by the Executive Director, Hamza Aliyu, in Lokoja, INGRA urged the Kogi state government to declare a state of emergency on the agriculture sector and free up human and financial resources so as to avoid the looming hunger.

INGRA raised an alarm that Kogi state is starting to experience severe food shortages and possible food insecurity if the government continues in the same way it has always done with poor funding of the agriculture sector, poor attitude to small scale farmers.

The statement noted that the negative attitude of the Kogi state government in not releasing budgeted funds is crippling the activities of the state Ministry of Agriculture.

For the umpteenth time since 2020, Kogi state has topped the States with the highest food inflation in Nigeria, the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) has shown.

The report revealed that in July 2021, food inflation was highest in Kogi at 28.51 per cent, Enugu at 24.57 per cent, and Lagos at 24.04 per cent.

This is in contrast to Sokoto, Akwa Ibom and Imo which recorded price deflation or negative inflation (general decrease in the general price level of food or a negative food inflation rate) within the period.

This trend, according to him, has been consistent for close to a year. “The NBS report however states that the rise in food prices was slower in month-on-month.

It is no gainsaying that Kogi state is blessed with large arable land, vast water bodies and a large population of small scale subsistence farmers. It is inconceivable that food prices should be the highest in the Nation.

This rise in the food index, according to the Bureau, was caused by increases in prices of bread and cereals, potatoes, yam and other tubers, milk, cheese and eggs, fish, soft drinks, vegetables, oils, fats and meat.

This ought to be a baseline for our State Ministry of Agriculture to look at these food items.”Kogi state has a comparative advantage when it comes to food items like fish, yams tubers, meat, rice and beans.

Many of our communities produce these items in large quantities; the question is, why are the prices not cheaper in Kogi than in Sokoto and Akwa Ibom or Imo, that do not produce these foods? ‘’

Kogi State Government has over time failed to look into the issues militating the large scale production of food for local consumption and export. Billions of naira has been spent on various Agricultural interventions both by state and multilateral organisations with very little results to show for it.

Explaining further, the Hamza Aliyu said the colossal expenditure on the Ejiba Rice Mills was premised on the fact that the State would reap from the bountiful supply of paddy rice and thus produce rice at an affordable cost to citizens and have enough for export.

The lamentable fact today is that the Mill is lying fallow and has not brought any returns on investment since it was commissioned.

‘’Support for small scale farmers, especially women farmers who form the bulk of producers of food in the state, has been at best minimal with no viable strategy for increasing their output,’’ the statement said.

INGRA called for a stop to the inadequate funding of the agriculture sector with at least 10% of the state budget set aside for the sector according to the Maputo declaration.

The dangerous and inimical attitude of non-release of budgetary allocations to the ministry needs to be stopped as this has a negative impact on the availability of food on the table for the average Kogi Citizen.

“There must be a performance-based measurement for the expenditure of public resources in the sector. Funds expended must have commensurate value addition to the public.”