National food imports dropped by $5.3b in one year – Adesina



As if to confirm that the ongoing agricultural transformation agenda is yielding the desired results, Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development, Akinwumi Adesina, says the nation’s food importation dropped by $5.3 billion in the last one year.

Speaking at the South-South Cooperation Achievements High Level Forum at the weekend in Abuja, Adesina said before now, Nigeria spent over $11 billion importing wheat, rice, sugar and fish alone.

The drop over the past year, he said arose from the additional nine million metric tonnes of food produced and added to the domestic food supply.

Also, he continued, is the huge impact of the Agric Transformation Agenda for the country, including the creation of over 2.7 million farm jobs, representing 77 per cent of overall target.

Meanwhile, the minister said Nigeria would save about $800 million annually from wheat flour import substitution with high quality cassava flour used in bread and confectionaries.

His words: “To reduce our almost $4billion import bill on wheat annually, we embarked on the cassava flour substitution policy to replace some of the wheat flour used in bread and confectionaries.

“As the commercialisation of cassava bread reaches its peak, it will reduce our import bill by at least $800 million and put this money back in the pockets of Nigerian farmers, processors and bakers.”

On South-South Cooperation (SSC), which is a tripartite venture involving Nigeria, China, and Food and Agriculture Organisation in support of National Programme for Food Security, Adesina sought the assistance of Chinese government in the area of rice milling technologies and cassava processing plants, which would help Nigeria to be self-sufficient in rice production and boost cassava processing.

Sincere 9gerian: Great news. Perhaps if not for all these reforms, the naira would have fallen to atleast N250 to $1 by now.

Lil chilz: I was coming home Saturday evening after a
hectic day and found a small bag on the
ground. I opened it and behold what I found
inside; $20,000 dollars!!
Fear first catch me, but I took the bag home
and when i emptied It, I found some Documents, ID card, ATM card and an Iphone. I
thought about throwing the sim away and
keep the phone and also dispose the
documents and keep the money. After a long
thought, I decided to leave things as they
were, hoping that the owner would call. Not long after a call came through on the
Iphone, I picked and talked with the caller.
Apparently it was the owner of the bag coz he
named absolutely every content of the bag. We
met afterwards and i handed him
the bag. He offered me $2,000 dollars but I turned it down , he collected my number and i
left.
Yesterday he called me and offered me a job at
Chevron worth 750,000 Naira per month, a 3
bedroom flat fully furnished, and a 2012 BMW
X6. As I was smiling and testing the car my
brother just slapped me and said "Oya Oya Oya
Wake up eba don ready.

akintun: Official food import dropped by $5.3b in one year, while food smuggling increases by $5.3b in one year. D guys smuggling rice into d country are making big buck, and d gov and people of Benin republic are smiling and rejoicing.

Lil chilz: I was coming home Saturday evening after a
hectic day and found a small bag on the
ground. I opened it and behold what I found
inside; $20,000 dollars!!
Fear first catch me, but I took the bag home
and when i emptied It, I found some Documents, ID card, ATM card and an Iphone. I
thought about throwing the sim away and
keep the phone and also dispose the
documents and keep the money. After a long
thought, I decided to leave things as they
were, hoping that the owner would call. Not long after a call came through on the
Iphone, I picked and talked with the caller.
Apparently it was the owner of the bag coz he
named absolutely every content of the bag. We
met afterwards and i handed him
the bag. He offered me $2,000 dollars but I turned it down , he collected my number and i
left.
Yesterday he called me and offered me a job at
Chevron worth 750,000 Naira per month, a 3
bedroom flat fully furnished, and a 2012 BMW
X6. As I was smiling and testing the car my
brother just slapped me and said "Oya Oya Oya
Wake up eba don ready.

akintun: Official food import dropped by $5.3b in one year, while food smuggling increases by $5.3b in one year. D guys smuggling rice into d country are making big buck, and d gov and people of Benin republic are smiling and rejoicing.

Uyi Iredia:

Much noted.

@ Sincere9jerian and OP: I will give Jonathan the benefit of a doubt while keeping akintun's point in mind. In the meantime, my sister has to suffer buying a Bali or Thai imported bag of rice for #10k or #12k. This means, the reforms are yet to be seen on the larger scale: when I see them in the form of cheaper Nigerian-made rice (said to be more nutrituous but poorly processed) and a consequent lull in agric imports, which should reflect in our forex then I'll jubilate, till then it's crossed fingers.

Lil chilz: I was coming home Saturday evening after a
hectic day and found a small bag on the
ground. I opened it and behold what I found
inside; $20,000 dollars!!
Fear first catch me, but I took the bag home
and when i emptied It, I found some Documents, ID card, ATM card and an Iphone. I
thought about throwing the sim away and
keep the phone and also dispose the
documents and keep the money. After a long
thought, I decided to leave things as they
were, hoping that the owner would call. Not long after a call came through on the
Iphone, I picked and talked with the caller.
Apparently it was the owner of the bag coz he
named absolutely every content of the bag. We
met afterwards and i handed him
the bag. He offered me $2,000 dollars but I turned it down , he collected my number and i
left.
Yesterday he called me and offered me a job at
Chevron worth 750,000 Naira per month, a 3
bedroom flat fully furnished, and a 2012 BMW
X6. As I was smiling and testing the car my
brother just slapped me and said "Oya Oya Oya
Wake up eba don ready.