The Federal Government has put hold on the concession of its 26 silos nationwide to address the challenge of food shortage.
Audu Ogbe, Minister of Agriculture, disclosed this in Abuja at a town hall meeting organised by the Ministry of Information and Culture, according to the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN).
The Goodluck Jonathan’s administration in 2014 put up 26 silos for concession due to low capacity utilisation.
The minister of agriculture stated that the silos would be used to store up grains which are currently been exported in large quantities by traders of neighbouring West African countries.
Responding to questions on looming food shortage due to alarming rate of exportation of grains by neighbouring countries, the minister noted that government cannot stop the trend.
He explained that as member of ECOWAS and signatory to the Commission’s Free Trade Agreement, it will be illegal for the country to stop the exportation.
“Government cannot stop such exportation but rather would store grains in its silos,’’ he said.
The minister further stated that stopping exportation of grains would amount to depriving farmers from having huge returns.
“You are telling the farmers to grow food over the years, they have done so and their returns have been very low but for the first time they are making money and they are happy.
“People come from Ghana to buy maize, they come from Mali to buy sorghum and millet and so on and we are monitoring but we cannot stop them
“This is the best incentive you can give somebody in any line of business that there is a market and there is profit,’’ he said.
The minister said to ensure food security in the country and also have reserve for export, government will from January 2017 intensify irrigation farming for production of grains thrice in a year.
He added that about 10 irrigation lakes or dams would be built in every state to enable growing of food all year round.
Nigeria has a total of 33 silos with a storage capacity of about 1.3 million metric tonnes. The silos were meant to store rice, beans, maize, soya beans and other food items.
Josephine Okojie with agency report.
