The Federal Government has launched four agricultural programmes to boost the production of crops and employment of youths and women in the country.
The Minister of Agriculture and Food Security, Senator Abubakar Kyari, who unveiled the programmes during an interactive session with journalists in Maiduguri, Borno State, said the President Bola Tinubu’s Renewed Hope Agenda is committed to boosting the massive production of crops that are accessible and affordable to all households and poultry farmers in the country.
“We have initiated a multi-faceted approach to overcome the challenges in the agricultural sector, including the rising market food prices and farmers and households’ daily staples.”
To boost the production of crops with stable market prices, the Minister stated: “Our ministry has already launched wheat and rice farming programme, agricultural mechanisation, and the distribution of fertilisers to farmers nation-wide free,” noting that the farmers produce about 80 per cent of Nigeria’s food requirements.
Speaking on the rising food prices, Kyari disclosed that before the inception of the Tinubu’s administration in 2023, the Ministry has built 33 silos across the country with 17 of them on concessions.
He lamented that only eight of these silos, scattered across the country, with the intention of storing farmers’ harvested assorted grains are functional.
Citing the national wheat farming programme, he said wheat production in the dry and wet seasons was to reduce wheat imports, which currently stands at six million tons yearly.
Other agricultural projects to boost food security and employment, according to him, include the procurement of 2,000 innovative-modern tractors from Belarus, stating, “The imported tractors will be inaugurated by the President for distribution this month.”
On the challenges of food security and productivity, he noted that insecurity and the perennial flooding in the 25 riverine states have impacted negatively on the farmers output and access to their farmlands.
He stated that despite the challenges in the sector, the ministry has succeeded in rice production programme, which has led to a bumper harvest with the market food prices crashing by 45 per cent across the country, including the border communities with Niger, Chad and Cameroon.
“The Federal Government is also committed to restoring national assets, by refurbishing tractors and other abandoned agricultural machinery to enhance farmers’ productivity to stabilise market food prices.” He further revealed that a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) has also been signed with Brazil for the preservation, processing, and storage of perishable crops.
Kyari, therefore, warned the farmers against diversion and sale of the tractors that will be inaugurated by the President for distribution nation-wide this month.
