The Minister of Livestock Development, Alhaji Idi Mukhtar Maiga, has decried the existence of 700 checkpoints where truck drivers conveying agricultural products are forced to pay an average of N1.2 million per trip, hence the high cost of meat in the market.

The minister, who was one of the guest speakers at the Daily Trust?s 22nd Annual Dialogue in Abuja, also attributed the high cost of meat in the market to the extortionate checkpoints manned by both state and non-state actors.

?Our people who transport cows have to pass through about 700 checkpoints manned by state and non-state actors. The drivers are paying an average of N1.2 million as they travel from one part of the country to another, which will be transferred on the goods they are carrying.?

He called on the responsible government authorities to dismantle the checkpoints, particularly those created by non-state actors.

?We are calling on the responsible government authorities to rise to this occasion by dismantling these checkpoints, especially those created by non-state actors on the road to make food available and affordable for Nigerians.?

Ibrahim said so much effort has been put in place to make food available to Nigerians.

He cited flooding in some parts of the country, and even the Russian /Ukraine war that has affected food prices globally as another part of the challenges. ?As the population continues to grow, Nigeria needs to do more including tackling insecurity to be able to provide food for its population.?

Ibrahim, who said Brazil is now a force in food production, tasked the Federal Government to adopt some of the models used abroad.

He also said Nigerians should be tired of saying the country has potential, stressing that it was time to activate that potential.

The minister said agriculture policies should address the issue where people produce for only family consumption with little to sell. He said there was a need to change the way we do things in the agricultural sector for us to get a different outcome.

Speaking in the same vein, the National President of the All Farmers Association of Nigeria (AFAN), Kabir Ibrahim, alleged that the Anchor Borrower programme of the previous administration failed due to corruption.

According to him, the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) gave billions of naira to prime anchors, who instead of giving the money to real farmers used it to buy rice from the market.

This, he said, led to the failure of the programme, which was intended to boost rice and wheat production between 2015-2016.

?Between 2015-2016, there was an effort to make rice available through the Anchor Borrower programme. But instead of giving the money to the real farmers, the CBN gave the money to the prime anchor.

?So, they took the money to the market and started buying what was expected to be grown by indigenous farmers,? he noted.

The AFAN boss also lamented that food access has been affected by insecurity and other challenges.

He called for large-scale dry season farming, adding that it was the only way to tackle the food shortage and affordability.

He also called for efforts to tackle incessant farmers, herders? clashes, adding, however, that his ministry was working with stakeholders to resolve the issue in some states.

Meanwhile, Mrs. Mira Mehta, CEO and co-founder of Tomato Jos, has said Chinese expatriates are responsible for 95 percent of the tomato paste produced in Nigeria.

Mehta, an experienced executive in the agribusiness and consumer packaged goods sector of the economy, lamented that most Nigerian farmers were not competitive.

She added that food manufacturers struggle to grow food in the country which has resulted in high cost of produce.

Explaining expensive in Nigeria compared to countries like Kenya, which share a similar per capita ratio with Nigeria, Mehta whose company is based in Kaduna, said the country imports over 30 percent of food spend which has negatively impacted production.

?Apart from insecurity, there are other reasons for the high cost of staples in Nigeria, including about 30 per cent to importation.

?This is huge because to bring in food to fill the deficit, we have to import with dollars and considering the exchange rate, food prices will be high.

?Kenya shares similar per capita with Nigeria. Meanwhile, the average Kenyan spends less than half of his salary on food, while his counterpart in Nigeria spends two-thirds of his salary on food.

So, to address high food cost, the Nigerian government must have a deliberate plan to support farmers, make precision farm technology available and affordable and develop and implement policies that will attract more persons, especially the young generation, to agriculture,? she said. (Daily Sun, but headline rejigged)

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