Zero Tariff, Zero Balance? High-stakes gamble on Nigeria’s rice bowl by Remmy Nweke - WeekendSalvo@NaijaAgroNet

Nigeria’s duty-free import policy offers desperate food inflation relief for urban consumers, but threatens rural livelihoods. REMMY NWEKE, in this WeekendSalvo@NaijaAgroNet dispatch, reports that as local millers face collapsing farmgate prices against cheap foreign grain, CARF-FSD’s survey gathers crucial field data to determine whether this fiscal intervention saves consumers or destroys long-term domestic food sovereignty.

For decades, Nigeria’s rice sector has teetered on a high-wire between two urgent, conflicting imperatives: keeping food affordable on urban dining tables and keeping rural farmers in business. When the Federal Government deployed its temporary zero-import tariff policy on staple grains, a desperate fiscal wrench thrown to stall runaway food inflation; it unlocked an economic tug-of-war.