….AS THE STATE ACQUIRES 120 TRUCKS OF GRAINS TO COMPLEMENT FEDERAL INITIATIVE
In efforts to cushion food insecurity across the country, President Bola Tinubu next week will flag off the distribution of the 42,000 metric tonnes of assorted grains released from the National Strategic Reserves across the country. The president will also commission the mechanization process, which the federal government provided as part of efforts to ensure better agricultural practice in the country towards achieving massive production of foods nationwide.
The development is in line with the President’s directive to the Federal Ministry of Agriculture and Food Security (FMAFS) to release 42,000MT of maize and other commodities from the national strategic reserves achieving the objective of the state of emergency declared on food security by his administration last year.
Announcing the implementation of the president’s directive, the Governor of Niger State, Mohammed Bago on Thursday at the FMA&FS headquarters in Abuja, said the distribution phase of the grains will commence next week. He said, We are here to discuss with the Minister of Agriculture and Food Security concerning the visit of Mr. President to Niger State as regards the commissioning of the mechanisation process that they have been able to provide for agriculture.
We also discussed the palliatives from the Federal Government in terms of food distribution from all the grain reserves that we have across the country using Niger State as a pilot in the North-Central so that it can commence in earnest.
The distribution will commence by next week, what we are saying is that Niger State has provided itself as a pilot state in terms of giving the dividends of democracy concerning agriculture and as such our sister states are coming on board,.
Bago noted that the state had also procured 120 trucks of grains comprising rice, millet, sorghum, guinea corn and soybeans to complement the federal government’s intervention.
Subsequently, he said the National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA), Office of the National Security Adviser (ONSA), and other security operatives, have been saddled with the task of the distribution. The Minister in charge of FMA&FS, Abubakar Kyari added that NEMA and ONSA had developed a template for seamless distribution of the assorted grains without any sharp practices.
These are not the only activities that are scheduled for next week on efforts to tackle food insecurity in Nigeria. For while reiterating the federal government’s position in tackling food insecurity, Kyari assured that the second phase of the dry season farming would be flagged off by next week.
