The Federal Government says it is exploring ways to ensure the availability of food and sustain high agricultural yields in the country as part of efforts to bring down the high cost of living.
The Permanent Secretary, Federal Ministry of Agriculture and Food Security, Temitope Fashedemi said this while addressing the 46th Regular Meeting of the National Council on Agriculture and Food Security in Calabar on Monday.
The forum is a platform for reviewing federal government policies and programmes towards ensuring the development of the nation’s agriculture sector.
Fashedemi said that the agriculture sector remained the springboard for national economic recovery, stability and growth.
The Permanent Secretary said the federal government was worried by reports of high costs of foodstuff, and promised that efforts were being made to immediately tackle it.
He said the meeting was meant to assess the effectiveness or otherwise of various policies embarked upon by the Bola Tinubu government.
“As a responsibility at this meeting, we are to dispassionately explore the best approach to sustaining food security, employment generation and wealth creation in the country.
“This process is to assess the effect of the ongoing initiatives and fine-tune strategies for a meaningful impact on the economy.
“It is to sustain the commodity value chain concept of strengthening sectoral linkages, import substitution initiatives, value-added processing and export–oriented activities,” he said.
Fashedemi said that government wanted to sustain collaborations on agribusiness initiatives by providing incentives to researchers, farmers and processors, and increase agricultural output and match national requirements.
“This will encourage more individuals and institutions to invest in agriculture and create livelihoods for the populace.” he said.
Cross River Commissioner for Agriculture and Irrigation, Johnson Ebokpo said the convocation of the meeting in the state was recognition of its efforts at boosting agriculture.
He said the state government had deliberately taken steps to boost investments in grains, palm nut plantations and recognised the sector as economy’s mainstay.
National President, All Farmers Association (AFAN), Kabir Ibrahim, represented by the national vice president of the association, Chief Daniel Okafor, said food supply system should be reinvigorated through inclusive efforts.
“We must identify the states in every geopolitical and agro-ecological zone, accentuate their production and consolidate the gains made in order to attain real food security. We exploit competition and comparative advantages,” he said.
He warned that the meeting should not be another talk show but should come up with implementable outcomes.
Tanimu Ibrahim, Director, Planning and Policy Coordination, Federal Ministry of Agriculture and Food Security, said the country require agriculture initiatives for national socio-economic development.
He urged stakeholders to share experiences on successful agribusinesses for replication based on their comparative advantages.
He assure that government would continue to provide an enabling environment to actualize the country’s agricultural potential through the engagement of individuals and groups in productive ventures.
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