NEWS COMMENTARY

Effects Posed by a Dramatic Increase in the Prices of Food Commodities

The impact of the ever rising food prices in Nigeria, an economy where majority of the population live below the poverty line, no doubt, leaves the people at the mercy of hunger and diseases.

Food constitutes one of the basic essentials of life, along with shelter and clothing.

Food is essential for our bodies to develop, replace and repair cells and tissues; to produce energy to keep warm, move and work; protect against diseases, resist and fight infection and recover from sickness.

Food is made up of nutrients. Micronutrients such as vitamins and minerals are needed only in small amounts. Macronutrients such as carbohydrates, protein and fat are needed in larger amounts. The body cannot function properly if one or more nutrients are missing.

This is why its availability and cost are considered paramount in ensuring the well-being and survival of the human society.

Hence, the current situation where prices of food items have continued to rise on a daily basis has become a source of concern to all and sundry in the last few months.

Findings by the National Bureau of Statistics have indicated that an increase in major food items such as fish, vegetables, rice, tomatoes, bread and other staple foods has pushed up the consumer price index.

A survey of major markets by Dee-Why Pumpy Media in Jos metropolis, including Taminus, and Angwa Rukuba market, revealed an astronomical increase in food prices when compared with the previous year.

For example, a bag of rice, which sold for 8,000 naira before now, sells for 11,000 naira; vegetable oil which sold for 8, 200 naira per keg now sells for 9, 800 naira.

At the end of last year, a basket of tomatoes cost N6, 500 but sold for between N13, 000 and N17, 000 as at the beginning of this year.

The survey by the Dee-Why Pumpy Media also showed that a medium-size basket of fresh pepper (Tatashe) which sold for N5, 000 and N5, 500 in the first and second quarter of the year 2015, sold for N12, 000 by March.

Similarly, chilli pepper (Ata Rodo) which cost N4, 000 and N5,500, sold for N25, 000 presently.

Even, a paint measurement of "Garri", a staple made from cassava, which maintained N300 price throughout last year now cost between N400 and N450 by the beginning of this year.

According to the NBS report, the last time Nigeria recorded a double digit inflation rate was December 2012.

The pitiable plight of the large number of the population is worsened by the increasing inflationary trend in the economy triggered by the same rising food prices in the early 2016.

The report attributed the situation to lingering fuel scarcity, high transportation cost and delayed rainy season, resulting in late harvest as the cause for the upward pressure on prices of food items.

Other factors affecting food prices are insurgency in the North-Eastern part of the country, inadequate mechanized farming system, bad roads and inadequate post-harvest storage facilities.

With this reality, many families are confronted with the challenge of tackling escalating food prices amid scarce resources and purchasing power.

No doubt this development is creating untold hardship in many homes especially that of civil servants with fixed income.

During Ramadan, Muslims fast from sunup to sundown. Abstaining from food and drink for prolonged periods, taxes the body and brain, and there is reduction in the official working hours to accommodate employees.

Regrettably therefore, some of the Muslims taken part in the ongoing fasting period complained about their inability to afford some essential food stuffs, beverages, desserts, chocolates and dates, with which the fast is traditionally broken.

We can categorically say here that most families gladly eat what is available and affordable compared to what is nutritional or desirable to them.

If this trend is not checked, it will result in malnutrition among people, most especially children, thereby making people to spend more from their meagre resources on drugs to keep healthy.

However, if food is available and affordable, aside from helping to stem hunger, it could curtail potential diseases and ensure productivity crucial to economic growth.

Prevention is better than cure. The earlier a person starts to eat a healthy and balanced diet, the more he or she will stay healthy.

It will interest you to know that once weight has been lost it may be difficult to regain it because of tiredness and lack of appetite.

With the realities of 2015, one expects that the Federal Government should no longer waste time and resources in its so called campaign or sensitization of the public to the need for diversification.

This underscores the call on Government to stop paying lip service to diversification of the economy and reposition the agriculture sector.

Also, Government has to make farming more attractive to young people in rural setting through the provision of social amenities in communities.

Overall, the present administration should also endeavor to pay attention to human capacity development and tackle food insecurity alongside its fight against corruption to enable the country to achieve the desired positive change.

By so doing, many Nigerians would be saved from hunger, disease and death. 

A News Commentary Written by Taiwo Akintunde (Dee-Why Pumpy Media).