PUNCH
The Federal Government has said the country will soon overcome its present food shortage and inflation, which has reached 40 per cent, according to data from the National Bureau of Statistics.
The Minister of Agriculture and Food Security, Abubakar Kyari, stated this on Sunday during an interview on Channels Television’s Sunday Politics.
Kyari revealed that the Bola Tinubu government has measures in place to address the present food inflation and increase food production in the country, saying that the country is expecting a bumper harvest before year-end.
The minister added that some of the reasons for the acute food shortage in the country are seasonal reasons, reduced landmass, flooding, and others.
He said, “It [bumper harvest] is about October-November this year. That’s when we are going to have the harvest. We are expecting a bumper harvest barring any natural issues. Well, I am just giving you the assurance that we will have a bumper harvest.
“The season we have here is a critical issue we have in agriculture. This is what we call the lean season, and this is between June and July and the next harvest.
“The shrinkage of land mass for agric, flooding, habitation problems, and insecurity…An ageing farming population; younger people are not going into agriculture now.”
