Abolaji Adebayo
The Federal Government on Monday reassured Nigerians that there will adequate availability of foods in the country with the level of farming  taking place nationwide.
The Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development, Chief Audu Ogbeh gave the assurance at the opening of a three-day 11th African Economic Conference which commenced in Abuja on Monday.
According to him, Â there will be no famine due to the massive food production in the country.
The conference was organised by the African Development Bank (AfDB), United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) and UN Economic Commission for Africa (UNECA).
The Minister  asked,  “How can there be famine when there is so much food production?’ while noting that the cost of food would be high for now and would fall in the next few months because farmers were planting again.
He said,  “The problem with those of us in the cities is that we do not even estimate the amount of labour and pain that the peasants go through to produce what they produce.
“If you visit the farm for one day you will not even sell the grains they are selling now at twice the price they are selling and that is why we are pushing machinery to agriculture.
“The prices will fall, but let production reach a level where those who want to exploit can no longer do so because there is so much available everywhere.
“If you start to impose price restrictions now, you will demoralise the farmer but I assure you that we are worried about the cost but the answer is for us to stimulate more production.
“Let us have at least three harvests a year on essential grains, once we do that, if anybody is hoarding, he will be caught by the new harvest.’’
