Niger: Gov Bago urges taskforce to move against those stockpiling food items
Niger State Governor Mohammed Umaru Bago has urged the state task force for price control of food items to take swift action against aggregators hoarding food items in their warehouses.
Bago made the call during the flagged-off of the Niger Foods’ corn harvest along Bida Road in a bid to achieve his Feed the Nation Agenda through mechanised agriculture.
He explained that the move was aimed at preventing artificial scarcity and ensure availability of essential commodities at reasonable prices.
” The activities of aggregators often lead to hikes in prices of food items as they stockpile them in their warehouses, ” he noted.
The governor, who was elated with the harvest, disclosed that so far, there are more than 100,000 hectares of corn fields of Niger Foods spread across the state, adding that 100 combined harvesters have been deployed to the farms.
According to him: “The use of the combined harvesters would reduce losses between 80 and 90 per cent. The state is expecting about a million metric tonnes of corn this year aside from rice, Soya bean, sesame, guinea corn and millet.”