“I can no longer afford to feed my family rice like before, it has become too expensive.” Like many Nigerians, Mrs Jimoh has been hit hard by the over 40% increase in the price of rice over the past year.
A Executive Assistant who identifies himself as Wale, complains, “In previous years my company use to give us incentives such as rice and chicken. But this year, they did not, rice has become too expensive, the office could not afford it.”
Rice is a common staple that features heavily in varying forms during festive seasons like Christmas and New year.
To shore up Nigeria’s status as a major rice Producer and meet local demands for rice, the previous administration of President Muhammadu Buhari had an intervention of over one trillion naira.
Despite that intervention, the cost of rice continues to rise.
In January 2023, a 50kg bag of rice sold for around N43,000 but the price has now shot up to N60,000 per bag in December.
The rising costs have forced Jimoh and several other Nigerians to ration rice.
With about 1.09trillion naira in interventions spent to aid rice production, Kolawole admits that the intervention has had little impact on production costs due to flooding and persistent clashes between herders and farmers in northern rice producing regions.
“The costs of inputs like seeds, fertilizers and herbicides have more than doubled,” explains Kolawole. “When you add in milling, transportation, storage and packaging costs, it is inevitable that the retail price of rice will increase.”
Kolawole also blamed the persistent clashes between herders and farmers in northern rice producing regions for disrupting cultivation cycles and lowering yields.
He called on the government to provide subsidies, improved farming inputs and technology to farmers to boost production.
“If urgent interventions are not made to support local rice farmers, prices could rise even higher and production may fail to meet national demand,” Kolawole warned.
With rice being a staple food for most households, Nigerians can only hope measures are swiftly implemented to bring some relief from the rising prices.
