NAAE Conference: Agric economists call for end to soaring food prices
|By Abubakar Ibrahim
Agriculture must do more in view of the unstable dynamics in the crude oil market, said Professor Dayo Philip of the Department of Agricultural Economics and Extension, Federal University of Lafia (FULafia).
Prof. Philips made his observation known, recently, in a lead paper he presented during 2021 Annual National Conference of the Nigeria Association of Agricultural Economists (NAAE).
The conference took place at the Adamu Adamu Lecture Hall and Office Complex, Permanent Site Campus, FULafia.
The theme of the conference was COVID-19 and National Economic Crises: Challenges to food security and sustainable livelihoods.
According to Philips, with the level of oil output outside the control of Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) members, “Nigeria was at the mercy of the world oil market price.”
He argued that the vulnerability of Nigeria’s food system was exacerbated by its dependency on crude oil and gas sales which accounted for, at least, 65% of its total annual revenue.
Philips decried prices of what he termed as “high profile food items in Nigeria,” saying that development was a result of importation of the items.
He said that “Nigeria produces only 57% of its annually consumed rice (6.7 mil mt) and consumes 3.2 mil mt of fish annually and remains Africa’s largest fish consumer,” calling for that situation to be reversed.
In the same vein, he lamented that Nigeria’s production of “313,231 metric tonns from aquaculture and 759,828 metric tonnes from fisheries does not meet the annual requirement, and has to be supplemented by import.”
The agriculturalist pointed out that Nigeria produces 20% of the global output of cassava tubers, making it the global leader in cassava production, “but poor domestic value addition and standardisation issues limits the country’s ability to compete in the world market with products from Cassava tubers.”
On the issue of COVID-19, Philips said that the sudden appearance of the pandemic in 2019 has stretched market and health infrastructure, globally, and created unprecedented public health crisis.
He said that since not much was known about CIVID-19, most countries and regions have put in place mostly temporary measures and policies aimed at curbing the spread of the disease.
Agriculture, he said, suffered when the supply chains of foods were disrupted by lockdowns brought about by the pandemic.
He said: “Transportation is one of the implicated supply chain activities. When transportation is restricted, jobs related to transportation, packaging, loading and storage are likely at risk. Because supply is disrupted, hotels and restaurants and eateries are poorly supplied with food materials. Poor patronage arising from lockdown affects sales and leads to temporary or permanent layoffs.”
In his speech, the Governor of Nasarawa State, Engr A. A. Sule, represented by Dr Dominic Bako of the Bureau for Public Procurement, stated the readiness of his administration to work with agricultural research institutions to develop processes of foods production.
He said that the conference could not have come at a better time than it did when the country was working hard to guarantee its food security.
Earlier, welcoming guests to the conference, the Vice-Chancellor of FULafia, Prof. Shehu Abdul Rahman, who was the Chairman of the Local Organising Committee (LOC) for the event, thanked dignitaries for honouring invitation to attend the conference.
He said that the theme of the conference was carefully chosen to address the problems bedeviling agriculture in Nigeria, especially with the advent of the coronavirus.
He noted several negative trends disturbing the process of attaining foods sufficiency, listing importation and lack of incentives for the teeming number of unemployed youths to embrace farming, saying that the problems must be quickly addressed by the authorities to stabilise prices of food items.
The conference attracted participants from within and outside of the University and state.