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General News of Saturday, 6 February 2021

Source: thenationonlineng.net

FG committed to sustainable food security - Minister

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The Federal Government on Saturday assured Nigerians of her commitment to sustainable food production, empowerment and overall growth of the economy even in the face of the biting effect of COVID-19 in the country.

Minister of State for Agriculture, Mustapha Baba Shehuri who stated this in Gombe at the flag-off of inputs distribution to farmers as part of the mitigation measures against the effect of the COVID-19 pandemic said the ministry and its research institutions are working towards making Nigeria self-sufficient in good quality seeds as a foundation for attaining food and nutrition security.

“A number of countries have banned or drastically reduced food exports to avoid scarcity of food. With dwindling oil revenues and limited opportunities to import food, one would only wonder what Nigeria would have been experiencing today, in terms of food supply, if this administration had not taken the right policy steps and remained focused and steadfast,” he said.

Shehuri said the restriction of movement of people, goods and services has negatively impacted on food supply chains, incomes, and livelihood across the country thereby making the smallholders the most vulnerable.

According to him, it becomes imperative for the government to support them with the much-needed inputs especially seeds, which is the most important factor that influences farmers’ yield in order to enable them to recover quickly from the setback of the pandemic.

“Through this effort and other complementary interventions by different stakeholders, the government hopes to increase the resilience of our farmers and the national food system in general,” he said.

Gombe state Governor, Inuwa Yahaya commended the Federal Government and the Minister for the efforts at cushioning the effect of the COVID-19 pandemic adding that like Oliver Twist, the state will continue to ask for more from the ministry and the Federal Government since the state is almost one hundred per cent agrarian.

“Agriculture is the main stake of our economy in Gombe state and we shall never be tired of asking for more support from the Federal Government as a child to the father. We know you are trying and we can see all your efforts, even our people can feel it. So we can only pray for you to continue in taking giant strides to move the nation forward,” said the governor.

At the flag-off ceremony, the ministry supported farmers with 2.5 Mt groundnut foundation seeds, 5000 gum Arabic seedlings, 15 Mt of rice seeds and 1,500 kg of cashew seeds.

Others are equipment such as water pumps, maize Thresher, Winnowers, Drip irrigation facilities, planters, weeders among others, 1000 kg of castor seeds and Ratkin and Liptol – organic insecticide to combat armyworm infestation.