By Nneka Nwogwugwu
Kenyan government has visited Nigeria to seek knowledge on Nigeria’s agricultural policies to help rejig the Kenyan agricultural policy.
A delegation from Course 36 of the Kenyan Defence Staff College revealed this when they paid a courtesy visit to the Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development, Alhaji Muhammad Sabo Nanono on Wednesday in Abuja.
The leader of the Kenyan Defence College delegation, Col David Samoui, said they were in the ministry to seek information on how Nigeria is running its agricultural policies.
Samoui stated that the country was amazed on how Nigeria could feed its over 200m population whereas Kenya was struggling with food security with just a population of 40 million people.
“Nigeria is a good destination to study and to know how agriculture is contributing to the nation’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP),” he said.
He also added that the students from the college were expected to develop best strategies for Kenyans after the study tour.
While receiving the delegation, Nanono stated that agriculture has a huge economic potential in Africa to create wealth and produce enough food to feed her people.
He added that Agriculture is important to create and sustain an economy in the sector to widen our perspective in the continent.
According to a statement signed by the Ministry’s Deputy Director of Information, Eno Olotu, on Thursday, the Minister who expressed delight at the visit said , “As Africans, we can learn a lot from each other and create a huge market amongst us both in the higher and lower levels. The wealth is in Africa, we must take our destiny in our hands to secure the future.
“We must explore the over 60 per cent arable land domiciled in the continent as an advantage to ensure deliberate government policies that will drive the actualisation of food sufficiency and security in the continent.
“We must lay our cards very well, if not we can become slaves in our country.
The Minister informed the delegation of the large scale intervention and focus by the Nigerian government in the sector to include: creation of platforms for the development of the food value chain both at the micro and macro levels and from the levels of production to processing, training of more extension workers to provide extension services for smallholder farmers and livestock development.
Others include; mechanization, strengthening of the research institutes for quality and improved seeds, provision of rural infrastructure for ease of access to the markets by the farmers.
While emphasizing on the strategic relevance of the sector in food security, the minister disclosed that the ministry is working hard to create the needed synergy between the agricultural and the industrial sector for the industrialization of the sector through mechanization in line with international best practices.
“We produce what we eat and eat what we produce”, stating that this catchy phrase has helped in promoting the local rice farmers especially during the lock down resulting from the COVID-19 Pandemic and has subsequently increased local rice production in the country.
He said the youth are also mobilized through the universities to participate in agriculture as the country seeks to explore its export potentials, adding that more youth are being encouraged to go into farming.