An Agric Economist, Mr Nnamdi Infenkwe, has urged the Federal Government to increase its mass agricultural schemes to boost food output and check inflation.
Infenkwe, who is a Senior Manager at the Nisi Agro Allied Services, made the call in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Lagos on Thursday.
According to him, expanding the schemes can improve farm yield and enable the country attain self sufficiency.
He added that the Federal Government should improve the security conditions in farm settlements in order to have uninterrupted food supplies.
“The insecurity challenges especially in some parts of the country were negating the country from attaining self sufficiency.
“This food index is one of the factors triggering the surge in inflation rate,” he said.
He also said that the Federal Government must sustain its support for domestic manufacturing to boost the real sector.
“Supporting domestic production through providing key infrastructure will enable them to operate at optimal levels.
“The volumes of goods being imported could be reduced and substituted for local ones,” he said.
NAN reports that according to the Nigeria Bureau of Statistics (NBS), the Consumer Price Index (CPI) which measures inflation increased by 14.89 per cent (year-on-year ) in November 2020.
The NBS had made the disclosure in its CPI November 2020 report on Tuesday, Dec. 15, 2020.
This, it said, is 0.66 percentage points higher than the rate recorded in October 2020 at 14.23 per cent. (NAN)
