BUSINESS DAY
President Bola Tinubu’s plan to boost food production and stabilise prices is being threatened as the rising spate of banditry, terrorism, and kidnapping across the country has worsened farmers’ plights.
In the past three days, several kidnapping cases have been reported in six states and Abuja, the nation’s capital. The deadly operations of terrorists and bandits across five of the six geopolitical zones have left no fewer than six persons dead, 60 kidnapped, and goods worth millions of naira destroyed.
Experts say the scourge of kidnapping, which has destroyed social and economic activities in some parts of the northern region, is shrinking farming communities as farmers are forced to flee tense states for safety, a development that has pushed up food prices and exacerbated the cost of living crisis in the country.
They described it as a huge threat to the food stabilisation plan of the federal government, saying it is hampering the country’s ability to diversify through agriculture and generate substantial foreign exchange despite its vast agricultural potential.
“We cannot stabilise food prices and feed ourselves with the high rate of insecurity across the country,” Jude Obi, president of the Association of Organic Agriculture Practitioners of Nigeria, said.
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