By Mohammed Mohammed
Following the declaration of state of emergency in Nigeria’s food sector, the Federal Government through the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural development has inaugurated two committees namely logistics and blending committees to work out the modalities for utilizing the donated 33,000 metric tons of granular potash raw materials for subsequent distribution of the finished products to small holder farmers to boost food and nutrition security across the country.
Senator Abubakar Kyari, the presiding Minister said this is in the bid to boost food sufficiency in the country.
At the inauguration, the Minister pointed out that the essence was to enable government address the food emergence situation as well as the new administration’s commitment to revive and secure the nation’s food.
He said: “We will not rest on our oars until the cloud foisted by the high cost of food prizes is swept off the skies over Nigeria”, noting that it was the task that the President has saddled him with and his colleague and they have both resolved to deliver on it.
He added that it was a new dawn in Nigeria’s agricultural sector and the Ministry, pointing out that under his leadership, the Ministry was primed to fully deploy all resources at its disposal to force an era of Renewed Hope for all.
Kyari, stated that farmers need NPK fertilizer, which was the result of process of blending Urea, Limestone granules (LSG), Diammonium Phosphate (DAP) and Muriate of Potash (MOP), noting that two of the raw materials (urea and limestone) can be found locally, while other materials were imported; the DAP from Morocco and the Potash from Europe.
Speaking further, he added: “It is the 4th component that our friends from across the Atlantic have graciously made available to us. This show of support is profoundly appreciated and we are once again very grateful to the Vice-President for taking up the responsibility to steer this process on behalf of the President.
He therefore tasked the committee members to ensure that the products were received and put to good use towards positively enhancing the situational realities of the people.
In his remarks, the Minister of State, Sen. Dr. Aliyu Abdullahi, commended the Committee members and revealed that the meeting was a follow up on what was discussed at the Vice President’ s Office.
He noted that the 8-point agenda that had been unveiled by the President at the inaugural meeting was very apt and one of its mandates was to eliminate poverty which Agric sector ought to play a great role.
Abdullahi, therefore, tasked the critical stakeholders to work towards redefining and positioning the agricultural sector to achieve a workable result.
In her remarks, the Technical Adviser on Sustainability, Office of the Vice President, Ms. Marion Moon stated that the Office of the Vice President was ready to support the Ministers to meet the objectives and address the issue of food security in Nigeria.
The membership of the two sub-committees were drawn from relevant stakeholders in the public and private sector.
The two committees were set up to handle the upstream and downstream process of actualizing the overall objectives of government, amongst others.
