Some agriculture experts have urged the federal government to collaborate with the private sector on food production reforms to tackle food inflation.
The experts made the call in separate interviews with journalists on Thursday in Lagos while reacting to President Bola Tinubu’s New Year message.
Mr Tinubu, in his New Year address, restated his administration’s resolve to boost food production and reduce inflation on food and drugs to 15 per cent, while strengthening the economy in 2025.
He vowed to increase efforts to reduce inflation from 34.6 per cent to 15 per cent through reforms aimed at boosting food production.
An agriculture analyst, Omotunde Banjoko, who lauded the administration’s commitment to tackling food inflation, urged the federal government to work with the private sector for the actualisation of the policies.
“The plans are good but the government should take the execution process seriously by giving it to the private sector. At the beginning of President Tinubu’s administration, he declared a state of emergency on food and a lot of policies to tackle the situation but we have not seen these promises come to pass. It is not just about making policies but they need to start taking action, measurable actions. There must be political will to bring these policies to existence.
“The government seems laid back; that is why we are not seeing the benefits we want to see in the food sector. Nobody is being checked when these policies are not put into action. So, the government needs to collaborate with the private sector to see fruition and the actualisation of these policies in ensuring food security,” Mr Banjoko said.
On his part, an agriculture expert and co-founder of Corporate Farmers International, Akin Alabi, called for increased local food production and capacity building of smallholder farmers.
Mr Alabi stated, “President Tinubu spoke about reducing food inflation in his New Year message. Food inflation reduction has been a conversation that has been ongoing since 2024, and we have had various conversations around it since he got into office. However, the critical points are two major factors: to increase local production and support smallholder farmers. We need to invest more in commercial farming, invest more in agricultural technology, and bring in more machines and not contracts, not just signing of memoranda of understandings. We want to see visible agricultural machines that will help increase food productivity and make the work of farmers seamless and easy.’’
He called for the reopening of the borders to boost food security.
He said, “Most importantly, we need to now begin to look at how we can open up our borders. We need to open, regulate and bring in food from the borders. It is quite clear that the farming community cannot take care of the growing population because of many factors that are either controllable or not controllable that we see every year.
“For example, climate change, which some refer to as an act of God and security concerns, we must open our borders to bring in food and then bring down the inflation.’’
(NAN)
