The Initiative for Grassroots Advancement (INGRA), a Civil Society Organization (CSO) has called on Kogi government to critically address the perennial poor budgetary allocations to the Agriculture sector to curtail food insecurity in the state.
Executive Director of the organization Mr Hamza Aliyu, made the call in a statement made available to newsmen on Thursday in Lokoja.
He said that for the second time in a row, Kogi was ranking among leading states in terms of food cost inflation and implored the state government to immediately step up its financing of the Agriculture sector.
According to him, this is in spite of the natural fortune of hosting the two major water bodies in the country (Rivers Niger and Benue) and having a 70 per cent farming population.
He said that the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) report for February showed that the consumer price index (CPI) which measures inflation, increased by 17.33 per cent (year-on-year) in February 2021.
“In January 2021, food inflation on a year-on-year basis was highest in Kogi with 26.64 per cent; Oyo, 23.69 per cent and Rivers, 23.49 per cent, while Ondo 17.20 per cent; Abuja, 16.73 per cent and Bauchi, 16.37 per cent recorded the slowest rise.
“The cost of basic staple foods like Yams, Garri, Vegetables and meat etc has been on the upward trend in the state especially in the State Capital. This is worrisome considering that Kogi is an agrarian state.
“Some of the reasons for this increase include the rise in the cost of Petroleum Motor Spirit (PMS) but this does not tell the whole story as the rates are different from State to State”, he said.
Aliyu also observed that there were poor budgetary provisions for the Agriculture sector in the state Budgets with very low implementation and release of allocated funds especially for smallholder farmers who produce the bulk of the food.
He hinted that among the hiccups was the dearth of roads, especially rural roads which according to him are in terrible conditions where available, thus making it difficult for farmers to move their goods to the markets.
The INGRA Executive Director said there was a looming Food Insecurity which could result in crisis and violence considering the high level of unemployment and under-employment, especially among young people in the state.
(NAN)
