Hardship: We Plan To Establish A National Commodity Board To Crash Food Prices – VP Shettima

The federal government has announced the plan to set up a Commodity Board to regulate the soaring prices of food in the country.

Vice President, Kashim Shettima, disclosed this on Tuesday during a two-day high-level strategic meeting on climate change, food systems and resource mobilization held at the Banquet Hall of the Presidential Villa, Abuja.

According to Shettima, the board’s mandate includes assessing and regulating food prices, as well as overseeing a strategic food reserve to stabilize prices of critical grains and other essential food items.

“Our solution to the potential food crisis has become immediate, medium, and long-term strategies. The short-term strategy entails revitalizing the food supply through specific interventions like the distribution of fertilizers and grains to farmers and households to counteract the effects of subsidy removal; fostering collaboration between the Ministry of Agriculture and the Ministry of Water Resources for efficient farmland irrigation, ensuring year-round food production, and addressing price volatility by establishing a National Commodity Board.
“This board will continually assess and regulate food prices, maintaining a strategic food reserve for stabilizing prices of crucial grains and other food items,” Shettima said.

On how the government is handling the security challenges that have prevented farmers from working on their farms, he said:

“I wish to assure you that we will engage our security architecture to protect the farms and the farmers so that farmers can return to the farmlands without fear of attacks.
“We won’t only make it safe for farmers to return to their farms, but we will also ensure the activation of land banks. There are currently 500,000 hectares of already mapped land that will be used to increase the availability of arable land for farming, which will immediately impact food output.”