By Nneka Nwogwugwu
The federal government at the 44th Regular Meeting of the National Council on Agriculture and Rural Development (NCARD) has met with stakeholders to strategise ways to mitigate acute hunger concerns in Nigeria.
Recall that UN’s Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) and World Food Programme (WFP) in a report issued in March 2021, revealed that acute hunger is set to soar in over 20 countries in the coming months without urgent and scaled-up assistance.
Yemen, South Sudan and Nigeria top the list of countries to face catastrophic levels of acute hunger, with families in pockets of South Sudan and Yemen already in the grip of or at risk of starvation and death according to the Hunger Hot spots report.
The report which was published on the UN site, listed Afghanistan , Sierra Leone, Burkina Faso, Syria, Ethopia, Zimbabwe, El Salvador, Democratic Republic of Congo and Madagascar.
Others are: Angola, Liberia, Somalia, Haiti, Lebanon, Central Africa Republic and Niger.
But in a statement on Tuesday, June 15, signed by the Director of Information, Federal Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development, Theodore Ogaziechi, the Permanent Secretary of the Ministry, Dr. Ernest A. Umakhihe, while declaring the Technical Session open at the 44th NCARD meeting in Abuja, said that the meeting with theme ” Nigeria’s Agriculture and Food Security in the face of COVID – 19, Floods and Insecurity ” is geared primarily towards assessing the effects of extant policies and programmes, fine tuning existing strategies and shaping initiatives for agricultural development in Nigeria.
Umakhihe said the arising challenges from COVID- 19, floods and Insecurity has conveniently placed Agriculture as spring board for socio economic recovery, stabilisation and growth in the face of food Insecurity.
He responded to the FAO and WFP report which was discussed during a paper presentation on “promoting private investments and financing agribusiness value chains in the face of COVID- 19 Pandemic, floods and Insecurity “by Abdul – Azeez Olumiywa.
In recognising these challenges, Dr Umakhihe stated that being aware and cautious of the impact of COVID- 19 on the global community, as well as climatic change, flooding and Insecurity that is posing a threat to global food security and Nigeria in particular, stakeholders in the 44th NCARD should consider themselves as engine room and should deliberately put strategies in place and explore linkages for increase in production, processing and marketing within the agribusiness ecosystem, to avert food crisis and engender food sufficiency for the growing Nigerian population.
The Permanent Secretary stated that the Federal Government is committed towards implementing the framework of the National Economic Sustainability Plan and the Nigerian Agricultural Technology and Innovation Plan as a strategy for food resilience and economic development.
He highlighted the Federal Government’s efforts in the sector to include: “the provision of Mechanization, inputs to farmers, training of extension agents on extension service delivery in crop, fishery and livestock value chain activities and construction of mini earth dam for irrigation activities “.
Dr. Umakhihe informed that “others are the facilitation of rice, milk, Cassava Processing plants, Bush clearing, farmers Market, Commercial pasture plots, Windmill powered boreholes and rural roads. Similar is the conduct of Aerial spray against seasonal invasion of quelea birds in the North East and North West frontline States to migrate losses “.
He emphasized the commitment of the ministry “to be tied to the commodity value chain concept of strengthening sectorial linkages, Import substitution initiatives, value added Processing and Export oriented activities in the country”.
Umakhihe stressed the importance of sustaining the collaboration on agribusiness initiatives to facilitate incentives to researchers, farmers and processors geared towards increase in agricultural output and match National requirements.
He pointed out that “this will encourage more individuals and institutions to invest in agriculture and create livelihoods and wealth for the populace. Therefore, we must sustain our cooperation on Agriculture and food security for socio economic development in Nigeria “.
Also in his remarks, the Federal Capital Territory, ( FCT), Secretary of Agriculture, Mr. Ibe Prospect, noted that the coming of COVID -19 is a wakeup call for a new beginning in Agriculture because this has shown that nations unable to sustain their internal food supply may not survive in times of grave demand posed by disasters like COVID-19.
