Determined to solve the challenge of scarcity and high cost of food in the country, the administration of Bola Tinubu has commenced support to farmers beginning from the 2023/2024 dry season farming period. As part of the immediate support by the government, it has undertaken the certification of available planting materials. It has, therefore, kicked off the programme in Jigawa State during a ceremony in the last weekend of November 2023.
Aliyu Abdullahi, minister of state in the Ministry of Agriculture and Food Security said, “The ministry outlined a series of critical pathways to solve the food security challenges. These pathways are streamlined into short-term, intermediate and long-term actions.” He said the seed crops-rice, maize, wheat, soybeans and sorghum- in 2024 is estimated at 312,555.69 metric tonnes. At maturation the benefitting farmers are expected to harvest 31 million metric tonnes of grains. The seeds, according to him, have been provided to farmers.
The minister said this at the opening season of the 6th edition of Seed Connect Conference and Exhibition on November 29, 2023 in Abuja. Earlier Hon. Benjamin Kalu, the deputy speaker of the House of Representatives had challenged the government to invest more in the seeds industry to boost efforts at achieving food security in the country.
The legislator said that investment in research and innovation was necessary to empower farmers to improve on their trade and produce more food for local consumption. Kalu said it was in realisation of the need to end shortage of food in Nigeria that the National Assembly passed the Plant Variety Protection (PVP) Act.
