The Federal Government has allayed the fear in some quarters that the
country would experience famine in 2017, assuring of sufficient
mechanisms to achieve food security in the country.
Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development, Audu Ogbeh, gave the
assurance at an interactive session with journalists in Abuja yesterday.
The Minister said the Federal Government had engaged
in the buying- back of assorted grains under the Guarantee Minimum
Price Programme for restocking of strategic silo complexes which he put
at 33 in number with a total capacity of 2.5 million tons of grains.
He disclosed that farmers in some states of the federation had already
commenced preparation for the dry season farming to ensure adequate food
security across the country adding that government was poised to make
farming an all-year round business by creating dams and lakes in every
part of the country to support irrigation system. He noted that crops
thrive and yield better through the irrigation system.
“Nigerians have no reason to panic, we have made arrangement for some
states to start planting so that we have second crops by April”he said
Ogbeh disclosed that Nigeria had signed an agreement with the government
of Morocco on fertilizer production which would yield one million tons
of fertilizer through local production in order to boost food production
in the country. He reaffirmed that the introduction of soil-specific
fertilizer application developed by the Ministry would also go a long
way in increasing high crop yield in the country.
He revealed that 30,000 slots allocated to the Ministry under the N-
power scheme of the Federal Government would be trained through the
Agricultural Development Programmes (ADPs) as Agric. extension workers
who will serve in their respective local government areas.
He added that the Ministry had acquired 110 various capacities of rice
mills of 10 tons, 20 tons, 50 tons and 100 tons per day for distribution
to cluster farmers to boost rice production and milling capacity in the
country as a way of attaining food sufficiency.
The Minister admitted that in the history of Nigeria, the country was
witnessing strong purchase of grains from as far as Namibia and other
countries which signal a challenge; as well as being beneficial to
Nigerian farmers to who now have a good market for their farm produce.
He assured that market forces would be stabilized through an increase in
local production of food commodities.