By Our Reporter
The United States government has disclosed it has invested $200m to boost food security in Nigeria in the past five years.
The government also said the sum of $150m was given asgrants to 33 private companies towards boosting different sectors in the country.
The Acting US Ambassador to Nigeria, David Greene, made the disclosure late last week during the launch of 2024 to 2029 Global Food Security Strategy held at the nation’s capital, Abuja.
He equally disclosed that a sum of $22m has been invested in Nigeria’s cocoa value chain in seven states.
According to the envoy, the implementation of the Global Food Security Strategy for Nigeria, is expected to boost agriculture productivitiy and drive agriculture led economy growth over the next five years.
However, he said despite the support being rendered by the US government to boost Nigeria’s agriculture sector, Nigerians are in the best position to solve issues that trouble their nation.
His words: ”The US government is providing broad assistance across Nigeria to support agriculture develoment. As Melissa mentioned earlier, USAID invested almost $200m to support agricuture in Nigeria in the past five years to improve food security and build household resilience to schocks in Adamawa, Benue, Borno, Cross-River, Delta, Ebonyi, Gombe, Kaduna, Kebbi, Niger, and Yobe States.
”We also provided modest grants to 33 private-sector companies to leverage over $150 million in private-sector development, generated $306 million in domestic sales, and created 23,000 jobs.
”USAID is one of many US government agencies promoting agricultural development in Nigeria. For example, this year, the US Department of Agriculture inagurated $22 million, five year investment in Nigeria’s cocoa value chain, spanning across seven states. The investment will improve rural livelihoods by building capacity in cocoa productivity, trade capacity, and traceability.”
The envoy lamented that Nigeria is currently experiencing a severe food crisis due to insecurity, inflation, currency devluation, the increased cost of inputs, trade restrictions, climate change, and post harvest loss noting that in January 2024, Nigeria recorded 35% increase in food prices, making it difficult for the 84 million Nigerians living below the poverty line to buy food.
He said the climate change is causing extreme weather conditions like flood and drought noting that it is more challenging for smallholder farmers to increase yields and incomes, adding, ”Ranked the sixth least prepared globally to confront climate change. Nigeria must focus on adaptation if food security is to be achieved.”