News in Brief:
– Nigeria is experiencing a severe food crisis, with onion prices doubling in recent weeks.
– This spike is due to factors like insecurity, climate change, and currency devaluation, leading to widespread concerns about food affordability and availability.
Nigerians are grappling with yet another wave of rising food prices, with onions emerging as the latest culprit. The staple ingredient has seen a dramatic price surge, leaving many households struggling to afford basic meals.
Consumers bear the brunt
Consumers across the country have expressed frustration and concern over the escalating costs. Many have taken to social media to share their experiences and call for government intervention.
“It’s becoming increasingly difficult to feed my family,” said Mr Samuel Adewale, a civil servant. “The government needs to take urgent steps to address this crisis.”
Adewale further warned of tougher times ahead yet for Nigerians in the light of a food insecurity situation.
“We are supposed to have an abundance of food in the market, but what we are seeing now is pathetic”, he lamented. “I don’t even want to imagine our situation when we enter the approaching planting season, and food becomes even more scarce”, he stated.
“The situation is dire,” lamented Mrs Aisha Ibrahim, a market vendor in Lagos. “The price of onions has doubled in just a few weeks. People are buying in smaller quantities or opting for cheaper alternatives, but even those are becoming scarce.”
Dwindling supply and rising costs
An independent market survey by this publication in some parts of Lagos State shows that the price of onions has tripled in value in less than two months. Effectively, an average-sized bulb of onions that cost around ₦150 to ₦200 in October, now sells for between ₦400 to as much as ₦700 or more.
Consequently, the situation has been described as ‘critical’ by many consumers who have had to grapple with unrelenting food inflation costs since the beginning of the year.
Malam Yunusa, an itinerant onion hawker, who sells the produce off his wheelbarrow, blamed the high cost of the commodity on dwindling supplies.
He attributed the situation to factors such as high transportation and input costs and subsequent poor harvest.
Generally, many have described the upcoming yuletide season as bleak, as prices of onions, tomatoes, pepper, oil, rice, essentially all the ingredients for festive cooking, have soared beyond the reach of the masses.
Experts call for urgent action
Meantime, analysts and experts have urged the government to expedite action on improving the country’s food security matrix, without which a general famine is expected.
Segun Ilori, the national secretary of the Nigeria Cassava Growers Association, noted the challenge of feeding more than 200 million people without well-thought-out government policies.
Essentially, he lamented the increased cost of food items owing to policies like the removal of fuel subsidies, and the devaluation of the naira.
“It now costs more to cultivate a hectare of land unlike before, all the input from seed to agrochemicals including fertilisers are very expensive now because most of them are imported,” he said.
However, he suggested that more effort should be put into the mechanisation drive of the agricultural sector as a panacea to food insecurity, rather than focusing on food imports.
Underlying factors fueling the crisis
Meanwhile, a combination of factors has been adduced for rising food prices in Nigeria, including:
1. Insecurity: Farmers in many parts of the country are facing threats from bandits and kidnappers, leading to reduced agricultural output. More than 30% of farms especially in the North have reportedly been razed or abandoned due to bandits’ attacks.
2. Climate Change: Unpredictable weather patterns, such as floods and droughts, have damaged crops and disrupted food supply chains.
3. Currency Devaluation: The depreciation of the naira has made imported food items more expensive, further fueling inflation.
Presently, the government has acknowledged the challenges posed by rising food prices in the country. To this end, they have implemented various measures to mitigate the impact.
However, critics argue that these measures have not been sufficient to address the root causes of the problem.
A major point of contention is the 150 days of duty waiver for food imports which the administration put in place since July but has not kicked off, or made any impact on reducing food prices generally.
Government response and criticisms
Nigeria’s minister of finance, and coordinating minister of the economy, Wale Edun in response to the delay in the take-off of the duty-free import of food, said the government was being careful not to flood the country with food that can be produced locally and consequently shutting out local producers.
He reiterated the government’s aim in rather supporting local farmers, through ongoing efforts in scaling up the provision of essential farming inputs such as fertiliser and seeds.
Meantime, as the cost of living continues to rise, Nigerians are bracing for even tougher times ahead. This is as the government and relevant stakeholders are being admonished to work together to find sustainable solutions to the food crisis and alleviate the suffering of millions of citizens.
