The Federal government has said it will continue to work in partnership with relevant stakeholders to boost food production and reduce food inflation in the country.
Minister of Agriculture and Food Security, Sen. Abubakar Kyari who stated this on Thursday in Abuja while receiving the Governor of Kebbi State, Dr. Mohammed Nasir Idris who visited him in his office, said there is no doubt that the collective steps the ministry is taking to boost food production, reduce food inflation, and more assuredly guarantee national food security, are matters of urgent engagement that require increased inter-governmental interactions.
According to the Minister, “In November of 2023, we flagged off the Wheat Dry Season Farming across 15 states that are in the wheat-producing belt of the country. As a reminder, the flag-off was intended to ensure that we rely less on rain-fed agricultural production during the Wet Season, and instead have all-year round farming.
“In addition to boosting the volumes of crops cultivated, taking advantage of both Dry and Wet Season Farming will increase job opportunities, reduce poverty, de-escalate food inflation, and enhance inclusivity, which are goals highlighted in President Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s Renewed Hope Agenda.”
He said that Kebbi State is one of the states chosen for the Dry Season Farming across irrigable farmlands. Noting that despite some of the initial glitches, it is reassuring that the state government took necessary critical steps, such as land preparation, and facilitation of tubular irrigation, to enable the cultivation of wheat under the National Agricultural Growth Scheme Agro-Pocket (NAGS-AP) project. “We are also aware that your government has supported farmers with additional fertilizers and other inputs and provided funds for commodity associations towards boosting agricultural productivity in the state,” the minister said.
“As we welcome Your Excellency to our corporate headquarters, I would like to inform you that there is currently on-going a broad-based stakeholders’ review of the implementation so far of the 2023/2024 Wheat Dry Season Farming. The review is taking place at a retreat in the boundary area between the Federal Capital Territory and Nasarawa State.
“While we await a more comprehensive report from the stakeholders’ review, I would like to draw Your Excellency’s attention to what would be critical success factors in the Federal Government’s intervention in the second phase of the Dry/Wet Season Farming that will involve the cultivation of rice, maize, and cassava. Availability of credible farmers’ data and accurately geo-referenced farmlands are germane. This is to ensure that agro-inputs get to real farmers who have the requisite hectarage to cultivate and are, therefore, not at the mercy of portfolio farmers who hijack agro-inputs and later round-trip to the economic detriment of genuine farmers.”
Responding, the Governor, Dr. Mohammed Idris said the state government was committed to the agricultural programme of the Federal government.
He said being an agrarian state, Kebbi State can feed Nigeria.
According to him, “To demonstrate our commitment, we have purchased fertilizers worth 2.8 billion which we distributed to our farmers free of charge. In addition to that, we have also purchased 6000 solar pumps to be distributed to farmers to reduce the cost they incur using fuel powered pumps because of the subsidy removal. We have also purchased 320 trucks of assorted grains for distribution to our farmers free of charge.”
He said his first priority is agriculture followed by education and security and requested the minister to include the state federal government agriculture intervention programmes.