The Nigerian Minister of Agriculture, Dr. Akinwumi Adesina, on Tuesday warned that the nation could experience food shortage as exporting countries had scaled down exports to address internal shortages, the privately-owned Punch newspaper reported Wednesday.
He said some Asian countries, which Nigeria relied upon for the importation of rice and wheat, were cutting exports in the wake of dwindling agricultural productivity.
The minister, speaking in Abuja, Nigeria’s federal capital, when he met with members of the House of Representatives Committee on Agriculture, named some of the countries as Thailand, India and Vietnam.
According to the minister, Nigeria’s food import bill is exceptionally high, saying ‘imports consume over 1 trillion naira in foreign exchange every year (150 naira =US$ 1).
“Nigeria’s food imports are growing at an unsustainable rate of 11 per cent per annum,’ the minister warned, adding: ‘To address the issue, the Federal Government was working with other tiers of government to re-position the agricultural sector.’
Responding, the chairman of the House committee, Mr. Tahir Monguno, said the House would study government’s blueprint for agriculture to be in a position to pass an enabling legislation to help the transformation of the sector.