Nigeria Content Online

The Federal Government on Tuesday, in Abuja,
released 45,000 tonnes of assorted grains, from the National Strategic
Food Reserve (NSFR), to the general public, to cushion the effect of
high prices of food commodities in the country.

The grains are paddy rice, gari, millet, maize, and sorghum.

The minister of agriculture, Sheik Ahmed Abdallah,
while flagging off the occasion, said it was meant to ease the high
prices of food stuff in the country, adding that the president,
Goodluck Jonathan, had directed that the grains be sold at subsidised
prices.

According to Mr. Abdallah, the commodities are to
be sold at 30 percent subsidy as follows: 50kg of maize N1, 855 or N37,
100 per tonne; sorghum N33,600 per tonne and N1, 680 per 50kg bag; 50kg
of millet, N1, 890 or N37, 800 per tonne; while 20kg of gari would go
for N1,050 or N42, 100 per tonne. Paddy rice goes for N42, 000 per
tonne, and per 50kg of the commodity would be sold at N2, 100.

He disclosed that 15,000 tonnes of assorted grains
had been approved as donation to Niger and Chad Republics, to fight
hunger in the two countries, as requested by the ECOWAS Committee of
Ministers.

He said a similar exercise would be carried out in
eight other states where the food reserve silos were located, pointing
out that some allocations had been made for sale to some stakeholders
and various groups in the states.