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President Bola Tinubu has assured Nigerians of his administration’s commitment to transform the agricultural sector by making food security the number one priority.
He said addressing issues of food security require the coordinated support of meaningful engagement towards delivering on the Renewed Hope Agenda for the attainment of national food security objectives.
The president who spoke through the minister of agriculture and food security, Abubakar Kyari, at the 15th edition of the National Agricultural Show in Karu, Nasarawa State, also added that the ministry remains committed to promoting and creating synergy between private sector to enhance efforts at ensuring food security, economic growth and job creation.
The show, which is organised by the National Agricultural Foundation of Nigeria (NAFN), brought together stakeholders in the sector under one platform “for business-to-business linkage, technology transfer, knowledge exchange, public-private collaboration and policy discourse amongst participants”.
He said, “Going forward, we commit to ensuring that all programmes and initiatives of the Federal Ministry of Agriculture and Food Security are completely aligned to attaining the four presidential priorities.
“I want to use this opportunity, therefore, to assure all our stakeholders that President Bola Ahmed Tinubu has demonstrated total commitment and political will to transform the agriculture sector of our dear country by making food security the number one presidential priority of his agenda.”
Earlier in his address, chairman, board of trustees, NAFN, Arc Kabir Ibrahim, outlined key strategies to transform the agricultural sector to include incentivising smallholder farmers, tackling insecurity, providing subsidies on seeds, mechanisation, adopting science and technology, and creating efficient storage and transportation systems to reduce post-harvest losses.
Ibrahim also called for the resuscitation of the Presidential Fertilizer Initiative (PFI), National Food Reserve Agency (NFRA), and appointing seasoned farmers to key positions in the agriculture agencies to demonstrate the federal government commitment to revitalising the agricultural sector.
He also called for reforms such as setting up agricultural intelligence centres, ensuring energy access, addressing climate change effects, promoting knowledge-based agriculture, tailoring agriculture to regional needs, and fostering synergy among stakeholders as well as proposals for recapitalising the Bank of Agriculture (BOA) to give farmers equity.