Despite the astronomical increase in prices of food stuff in the market, the Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development, Audu Ogbeh, has said that Nigeria produce more food than the people can consume.
He stated that a huge chunk of the food got wasted due to poor storage facilities across the country.
Ogbeh stated this yesterday while flagging-off the Nigeria Yam Export.
He pointed out export as one of the ways Nigeria can prevent food wastage, lamenting the country’s poor preservation capacity.
The minister also stressed the need for Nigeria to begin to earn more foreign exchange by exporting yam.
According to him, “there is really no shortage, new yams will be here in two weeks. The old stock is still there everywhere and people in the market are getting worried that new yams will come and nobody will touch the old ones.”
“We actually over produce food here (in Nigeria), 30% to 40% of some of the food we produce is wasted because of poor preservation capacity,” the Minister stated.
