…Strategize to implement 2023/2024 2nd phase dry season farming
Dele Ogbodo/Victoria Onyisi
In line with President Bola Tinubu’s avowed determination and directive to make Food Security his administration’s number one agenda which inevitably birthed: The declaration of food security emergency, the Federal Ministries of Agriculture and Food Security (FMAFS), Economy, Budget and National Planning have commenced galvanizing efforts under the National Agricultural Growth Scheme and Agro Pocket (NAGS-AP) Programme along with critical stakeholders to push down food inflation and to boost food production.
The critical stakeholders including organized private sector and international bodies met to strategize on the implementation of the second phase of 2023/2024 dry season farming.
The Director, Information, FMAFS, Dr. Joel Oruche, in a statement signed on his behalf by Mr. Ezeaja Ikemefuna, AD, Information, reiterated that the robust coalition is aimed at securing a resilient food production ecosystem to drive down the food inflation and boost production across the country.
Speaking at the closing ceremony of the event spearheded by the FMAFS, at Orozo, a satellite town in Abuja, which was attended by the Minister of Finance and Coordinating Ministers of Economy, Mr Wale Edun, Budget and Economic Planning, Alhaji Atiku Bagudu, the Minister of Agriculture and Food Security, Sen. Abubakar Kyari, stated that the objective of the forum was to review the implementation of the 2023/2024 dry season wheat production implemented in the 15 wheat producing States across the country based on their respective comparative advantage and preparatory meeting to chart a new course for the implementation of the second phase for rice, maize and cassava.
Kyari, stated that the project aside supporting farmers with critical farm inputs for the production of the priority crops, will also provide institutional support for better performances and sustainability particularly in the areas of wheat seeds local production.
The Minister revealed that there were observed lapses in the implementation process hence the need for collective and comprehensive evaluation of the efforts put in place and proffer qualitative remedial measures to forestall their reoccurrence.
He stated that all necessary machineries and strategies would be put in place to address all the observed lapses and infraction from all parties.
The Minister pointed out that officers will be deployed to manage and coordinates the supply chain activities, should adhere strictly to the laid-down rules and guiding principles while in their own case.
He added: “The ICT platform provider are to deploy the best and reliable system that can capture and trace all the transactions under the agro-pocket, being the primary purpose government decided to utilize technology in the inputs delivery process to promote transparency, accountability and easy tracking of the impacts and performance.
“The input producers’ fertilizers, seeds, agro-chemicals to ensure that the products supply meet with the prescribed set standards in terms of quantity and quality, the input distributors or agro-dealers to sell only certified and approved products sourced from the registered input producers.”
He stressed that the farmers should use and apply the entire inputs given in line with the best agronomic practices for maximum productivities’’.
Kyari, noted that a dimension of encumbrance to the dry season wheat farming under the NAGS-AP were cases of farmers’ inability to pay their component of the input cost.
President Tinubu, according to the Minister who out of his commitment to ensuring improved agricultural production, has directed that additional support be given to farmers to cushion such effect in subsequent interventions.”
In his remarks, the Minister of Finance, stated the importance of agriculture sector cannot be overemphasized under the leadership ofTinubu‘’ there is substantial intervention funds for the agric sector, in terms of food production, to produce more rice, maize wheat and cassava.
According to him, this efforts will will help to bring down rate of inflation. A successful dry season farming will bring down cost of food production and will bring down inflation, he added.
In his Goodwill message, the Minister of Budget and Economic Planning, acknowledged that Nigeria’s agricultural space is one of the most elastic in the world, as according to him, every cropping season can produce a miracle, if there is more investment in the sector.
He added that the President Tinubu’s administration is committed to the agriculture sector in terms of improvement in budget allocation and other intervention funds to achieve food and nutrition security.
Also speaking at the event, the Minister of State, Sen. Dr. Aliyu Abdullahi pledged that all members of the agricultural ecosystem would work assiduously to drive the change in the agriculture sector in line with Renewed Hope Agenda of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu geared towards achieving Food and Nutrition Security.
In her welcome address, the Director, overseeing office of the Permanent Secretary, Mrs. Olwatoyin Alade, represented by the Director Planning and Policy Coordination, Mr. Tanimu Ibrahim revealed that “the goal of the National Agricultural Growth Scheme (NAGS) is to increase total food production to crash the continued rise in the prices of agricultural commodities and make them affordable to the average Nigerians.”
She said: “The key objective is to increase the production of wheat, rice, maize, sorghum, Cassava and soyabean through the provision of relevant farm inputs such as fertilizers, high quality seeds, agro-chemicals etc to small scale farmers under both dry and wet season farming.”