CPPE blames drawbacks in food production on insecurity

By allcitynews.ng

Amidst the continued attacks and killings of farmers across the country, mostly around some northern states, the leadership and founder of Centre for the Promotion of Private Enterprise (CPPE) Dr Muda Yusuf has described the unwarranted attacks and killings as enimical to both food security and growth of the economy.

Even as he assured that tackling of insecurity will lead to more food production as farmers that have abandoned their farmlands because of insecurity will go back to their farms.

In his second quarter assessement of the economy, Yusuf said, “The GDP growth in the major contributors to the GDP were positive but subdued. The growth performance needs to be improved upon to promote inclusion in the growth process.

“Agricultural sector for instance grew contributes 24% to the GDP but grew by 1.2% in the second quarter of this year. One of the major drawbacks to the sector was the state of insecurity in most farming locations across the country.”

Moreover he said “An improvement in the security situation would surely boost performance of the sector. This would impact on job creation and food security in the country. Better adoption of technology would also add significant value to agriculture. There is a need to improve the efficiency in the entire agricultural value chain – production, processing, transportation, preservation, packaging, marketing etc.”

And also, the CPPE helmsman said, “The manufacturing sector grew by 3% in the quarter under review. Capacity utilization is still weak and manufacturers are still grappling with forex and structural issues constraining their productivity. All of these need to be addressed with appropriate government policies.

“Across all sectors, there are issues around the high energy cost, the currency depreciation, the soaring inflation, weak purchasing power, forex scarcity and the structural problems of infrastructure. Even though the non-oil sector contributed 93% of the GDP in the period under review, weak productivity remains an issue.”