In an attempt to boost the country’s food supply, the federal government has revealed intentions to expand the amount of land accessible for farming on unoccupied acres of Federal Tertiary institutions.
At the Seventh-Day Adventist Church’s Centennial Public Lecture and Food Summit on Friday in Port Harcourt, Senator Abubakar Kyari, Minister of Agriculture and Food Security, made this statement. “Ending Food Shortage in Nigeria, How to Apply The Surplus Concept” was the event’s theme.
Accompanied by Nuhu Kilishi, the deputy director for nutrition and food safety at the ministry, Kyari declared that letters requesting authorization from the institutions had already been sent.
He disclosed that several universities have already begun to respond favorably, declaring that the move would undoubtedly be a step toward bringing farming back into colleges.
“We want to revive farming in the schools and institutions,” Kyari declared. We have written to colleges and universities asking them to grant us access to hectares of their underutilized land.
“They have begun to respond. A program to guarantee that those vacant lands are being used for cultivation will be in place by the time we have a respectable degree of compliance, which will increase the amount of food available.”
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He advised farmers to consider the possibility of processing agricultural produce in order to maximize profit rather than stopping at producing food, noting that the Federal Government will provide farmers with solar-powered irrigation pumps in an effort to cut cultivation costs.
“Since farmers require irrigation pumps, the government plans to purchase solar pumps for them in order to reduce their expenses. They would use solar pumps in place of gasoline pumps.
“The Minister has unveiled strategies to alleviate Nigeria’s food scarcity in the short, medium, and long terms.
“I will counsel farmers to pursue value addition and processing after they have finished producing, as it is a more profitable endeavor,” he stated.
The nation’s food scarcity is primarily caused by selfishness, according to the keynote speaker for the event, Cyril Nwamguruka, a professor of plant breeding and genetics at Babcock University.
Nwamguruka implored President Bola Tinubu to appoint only selfless and committed individuals to positions of public trust.
“I am appealing to the President; he should also act beyond evaluating people’s qualifications,” he said. He ought to consider their previous experiences with them to see how impartial, true, devoted, and truthful they have been.
Despite the fact that we have an excess of resources, some people wish to keep them to themselves because selfishness is what is killing us. But you will think outside of yourself if you are guided by a moral compass.
In order to improve food production and distribution throughout the nation, he further asked the government to make investments in road building and security.
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