Federal Government Unveils Strategy For Food Security

• Federal government unveils agricultural strategy focusing on integration, sustainability, and resilience to address Nigeria’s food production and nutrition challenges
• The strategy spans various components of the agricultural value chain, including investments in youth and women in agriculture, research reforms, and infrastructure development

The federal government unveiled a strategy for the country’s agricultural sector yesterday in an effort to address food production and nutrition challenges.

The strategy aims to build on the experiences gained while implementing the National Agricultural Technology and Innovation Policy (NATIP) 2022-2027.

Abubakar Kyari, Nigeria’s Minister of Agriculture and Food Security, unveiled the plan in Abuja, highlighting the focal areas that hinge on integration, sustainability, and resilience to Nigeria’s agricultural sector challenges.

The strategy is divided into immediate, short, medium, and long-term components that span the agricultural value chain, such as investments in women and youth in agriculture, animal feeds as an antidote to farmer-herder clashes, agricultural research reforms, the launch and operation of the National Agricultural Development Fund, agricultural mechanization, and other infrastructures to accelerate food production.

Other areas covered by the strategy include the creation of a national agricultural database, the establishment of new agrotourism hubs, and the establishment of animal disease-free zones, among others.

In addressing the sector’s most pressing needs, the minister stated that the federal government is currently preparing for the next dry-season farming season, which will begin with plans to cultivate 70, 000 hectares of wheat in November with a target production of around 875,000 metric tonnes.

He also announced the National Agriculture and Food Security Summit, which will take place in November 2023 and will bring together relevant stakeholders to develop a national action plan for food security with an implementation and sustainability strategy.

The minister assured stakeholders that the issue of ‘political will’ as a barrier to policy actions in the ministry had been resolved.

Kyari emphasized that the sector’s underlying challenges necessitate innovative and trending solutions, which are better understood when recounting the challenges of insecurity, youth unemployment, and population growth.