The Minister of State for Agriculture and Rural Development, Senator Heineken Lokpobiri, has said that Nigeria spends about $22bn a year on importation of food.
Lokpobiri made this known on Saturday at a town hall meeting in Yenagoa, Bayelsa State.
He said the development had led to the astronomical rise in price of rice and other commodities, stressing that if Nigerians failed to produce some of the items being imported, before December the price of rice would skyrocket to N40,000 a bag.
He said there was a projection that by 2050, Nigeria’s population would be 450 million, wondering what would happen then if the people could not feed themselves now.
Lokpobiri said, “For your information, we spend about $22bn a year importing food into Nigeria. We know how many more dollars … and that is why you see the price of rice going up.
“Price of rice was N12,000 some months ago, but it is now about N26,000 and if we don’t start producing, by December it could be N40,000.
“Rice matures in three months. So, this is a wake up call for Bayelsa people to take the four farms we have seriously. The federal government has four farms in the state in our records. The average land you see in Bayelsa can grow rice, so the colonial masters were not wrong in their assessment when they said Niger Delta could feed not only Nigeria but the entire West Africa sub-region.
“Unfortunately, agriculture till today, is not a priority of the Niger Delta as far as the state governments are concerned because of oil.”
He said the states in the Niger Delta had yet to give priority to agriculture the way the North-West states such as Kebbi, Jigawa, Kano as well as other states like Lagos, Ebonyi, Anambra, have prioritised it.
He said Anambra State for instance, was not owing salaries despite the fact that it does not have oil but raking in money by exporting vegetables.
http://punchng.com/nigeria-spends-22bn-food-importation-minister/

mynd44,lalasticlala

God forbid.

After all, before we discovered rice, we no dey chop concrete.
Garri dey

Smuggling will be intensified.

In conclusion, What's Heineken saying. . ??
He was trying to make us see the level of inept in his corridor as minister of agric(state) .
If am not mistaken, this is this man's first public speaking and he has the gut to churn out this garbage.?
These are the people that took buhari 6months to select.

Not possible. You guys shouldn't freak out.

How soon have you forgotten that this present government is run my dumb people.
Its just another one of their unending propaganda to push everyone into farming.

Ka o sokwe gi...ndi ara!

Is it not the elite that are not interested in eating what we call "local" rice

dont worry the case will be reversed by december,it will be N4,000 instead of N40,000.

Our money will soon go the way of the Zimbabwean dollar

We most survive

Someone should please give me this minister's number, I need to teach him a lesson.

This country sef! I yam tayad!

$100 will exchange for 50,000 ngn and £100 for 100,000 ngn.

Change is here. Change is real.

waiting for those ZOMBIEs to come and defend their government as usual

God have mercy on ur people.

.