The Nigerian government has taken measures to check overgrowing food prices and reinforce food supply for domestic market as the life of Nigerians is shadowed by the recent food crisis across the world.
As a country highly depending on food imports, Nigeria suffered from rocketing prices of basic food items since the beginning of 2008. The measures aimed at tackling negative impacts on economy and social stability,
According to food dealers in Lagos, the price of a 25 kg bag of rice imported from Thailand surged by about 30 percent between January and late April while cassava-related food products also registered 20-30 percent rise in their prices in the same period.
The price hike is believed to reduce the accessibility of food for needy people to maintain their life.
The food crisis also touched the middle class. Investment in Nigeria's stock market has also come under huge pressure as dealers said that the market would continue to experience depression.
It is learnt that the capitalization of the stock market has dipped by 9.3 percent in less than two months as the bears took over the control of the nation's capital market since this March.
Experts attributed the bearish trend partly to the squeeze of surging food prices. Director-General of the Nigerian Stock Exchange, Ndi Okereke-Onyiuke, has also linked the bearish trend with the global food crisis.
Being aware of the threats to the country's economy and social stability, the Nigerian government has launched a string of measures to tackle this ongoing food crisis.
It announced in early April suspending double taxes on rice importation to step up supply for domestic market. The government also diverted 80 billion naira (690 million U.S. dollars), which were earlier earmarked for the rice importation, to the improvement of domestic production of food crops and the improvement of agro-allied industries.
On public occasions, high-ranking officials emphasized the importance of agriculture development, promising to reinforce investment in the agriculture sector.
Another cure of the current crisis adopted by the government is seeking an alternative for rice and bread, for instance, to make full use of local food like cassava, yam etc.
The government is engaged in developing more cassava-related products and relevant value-added processing for years. The effort seems to do it a great favor to resist the aching of food crisis this time.
The most noticeable resolution should be the injection of some 350 billion naira (about 3.02 billion U.S. dollars) taken from the Excess Crude Funds into the country's economy to facilitate growth.
This announcement is widely regarded as a symbol of the Nigerian government's resolve to increase its input in agriculture sector.
Source:Xinhua
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