Senator Abubakar Kyari, minister of agriculture and
food security is asking stakeholders in the agriculture
and food chain to collaborate with the government in
the provision of seedlings for the major food crops
that are needed to solve the challenge of food
production in the country. He made the call at the
high-level stakeholders’ forum on Seed System
Development, organised by Feed-the Future Nigeria
Integrated Agriculture Activity, in Abuja. The forum
was themed Enhancing Seed Systems Development for
Improved Food Security: A Paradigm of USAID
Interventions in Northeast Nigeria.
Senator Kyari, who was represented by Haruna Suleiman,
the Director of National Food and Strategic Reserve,
said Nigeria needs about 312,000 metric tonnes of seeds
to achieve food security, food sufficiency and global
security this year. The ministry had outlined a series
of critical pathways to solve the nation’s food
security challenges.
Kyari said “Major crops that are most concerned are
rice, maize, wheat, sorghum, and cowpea in 2024. We
require about 312,000 metric tonnes of seeds to enable
us to achieve the required metric tonnes (of food).”
Not willing to hide the challenges faced by the
ministry, and by extension in government, in the
envisioned massive production of foods the minister
said, “Nigerian seeds development require partnership
and synergy among all key stakeholders to facilitate a
model of collaboration built on knowledge sharing,
skills exchange, expertise, competitiveness, and mutual
benefit.”
