Connect with us

News

Insecurity, floods undermine local food production – Buhari

Published

on

President Muhammadu Buhari said on Monday floods and insecurity in different parts of the country have undermined local food production in the country.

The President, according to a statement issued by his Senior Special Assistant on Media and Publicity, Garba Shehu, stated this in his Eid El Kabir message to Nigerians.

He said floods caused large-scale destruction to agricultural farmlands and negatively impacted efforts to boost local production in line with policies put in place to drastically reduce food importation in the country.

The President added that the country’s insecurity also caused severe and adverse effects on agriculture as farmers were prevented from accessing their farms by bandits and terrorists.

He stressed that the development led to food inflation which the government is working hard to address.

President Buhari revealed that apart from the destruction caused to rice farms by floods, middlemen also take advantage of the local rice production to exploit Nigerians.

READ ALSO: Nigerian Govt begs UN to intervene on food security

He insisted that noted that no government in recent history has invested heavily as his administration in promotion of local production of about 20 commodities through the provision of loans and several other forms of support to farmers.

Buhari said: “As an elected President who enjoys the goodwill of the ordinary people that gave us their mandate, let me assure you that we are continuing with measures to bring relief to Nigerians, including making fertilizer available at affordable prices to our farmers.”

He reassured Nigerians that his administration is taking measures to address the country’s security challenges.

“We have started taking delivery of fighter aircraft and other necessary military equipment and hardware to improve the capacity of our security forces to confront terrorism and banditry,” the President added.

Join the conversation

Opinions

Support Ripples Nigeria, hold up solutions journalism

Balanced, fearless journalism driven by data comes at huge financial costs.

As a media platform, we hold leadership accountable and will not trade the right to press freedom and free speech for a piece of cake.

If you like what we do, and are ready to uphold solutions journalism, kindly donate to the Ripples Nigeria cause.

Your support would help to ensure that citizens and institutions continue to have free access to credible and reliable information for societal development.

Donate Now