In a bid to achieve food security, and employment generation amongst others, the federal government has reiterated its commitment to ensure the availability of food. This it plans to do through the sustainability of high agricultural yields in the country as part of efforts to curtail the high cost of food.
The development comes as the National President, of the All Farmers Association (AFAN), Kabir Ibrahim, represented by the national vice president of the association, Chief Daniel Okafor, called for a sustainable food supply system, that must be reinvigorated through inclusive efforts.
“We must identify the states in every geopolitical and agroecological zone, accentuate their production, and consolidate the gains made to attain real food security. We exploit competition and comparative advantages,” Ibrahim had said.
He warned that the meeting should “not be another talk show but should come up with implementable outcomes” at the Technical Session of the 46th Regular Meeting of the National Council on Agriculture and Food Security, Calabar, Cross River State.
The summit was themed, “Resilience to Climate Change Towards Sustainable Food Security” and was meant to assess the effectiveness of various policies on agriculture embarked upon by President Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s government.
Reiterating the federal government’s commitment to food accessibility and supply, the Permanent Secretary, Federal Ministry of Agriculture and Food Security, Mr Temitope Fashedemi noted that the theme was appropriate and deliberately crafted at a time when the country is faced with a food crisis.
Recall our earlier reports that food inflation is recording an all-time high of 37.77 per cent. So, it was not a surprise that the government is worried about the development.
Fashedemi said, “The federal government was worried by reports of high costs of foodstuff and promised that efforts were being made to immediately tackle it.
“The National Council meetings of any sector is the highest policy-making body and for Agriculture, the forum is a platform for reviewing federal government policies and programmes towards ensuring the development of the nation’s agricultural sector.
“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.
Fashedemi highlighted some of the efforts to drive investment in the sector to control inflation and sustain collaborations on agribusiness initiatives including the provision of incentives to researchers, farmers, and processors.
In his remarks, the Cross River Commissioner for Agriculture and Irrigation Development, Hon. Johnson Ebokpo said the convocation of the meeting in the state was in recognition of its efforts at boosting agriculture.
He said the state government had deliberately taken steps to boost investments in grains, and palm nut plantations and recognised the sector as the economy’s mainstay.
The Director, of Planning and Policy Coordination, FMAFS, Mr Ibrahim Tanimu said the country requires agriculture initiatives for national socio-economic development.
He urged stakeholders to share experiences on successful agribusinesses for replication based on their comparative advantages.
He assured that the 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.
The highlight of the event was the presentation of Memoranda by the critical stakeholders in the agricultural sector as disclosed by the Chief Information Officer FMAFS, Mrs. Eremah Anthonia.
