From Jimoh Balogun
The Federal government said it has made bulk rice purchases to the tune of about 58,500 tons from farmers, saying that the intention is to crash the price of commodities in the market
The government said it has also asked the World Food Programme to stop purchasing bulk food from farmers so as not to worsen the current food inflation .
The Minister of Agriculture and Food Security, Abubakar Kyari, who disclosed this said , “What we did not want to do, was to get to market and purchase foodstuff; we have appealed to the World Food Program (WFP), which is a United Nations Agency, not to make bulk purchases from the market so as not to exacerbate the food price inflation that we have now”
The minister also said that the Ministry has receives fertiliser donation from CBN, noting that the fertiliser donation from apex bank will enhance food production and price stability in Nigeria.
He said that the agriculture ministry had received the handover of the donation letter and that the distribution of the fertilisers would commence soon.
According to him, the ministry is awaiting the location of the fertiliser drop-off. “As soon as we get the locations, which I am sure are spread across the country, we will swing into action,” he said: