From Aniekan Aniekan, Calabar
The federal government through the Federal Ministry of Agriculture and Food Security alongside major agriculture stakeholders in Nigeria are poised to review Nigeria’s agric policies.
In line with this, the government has rolled out strategic plans and ideas on agricultural development in the country to bolster greater yields and rake in revenues.
The was disclosed in Calabar during the flag off of the 46th regular meeting of the National Council on Agricultural and Food Security.
This year’s meeting had as theme: “Resilience to Climate Change towards Sustainable Food Security”.
In his opening remarks, the Permanent Secretary, Federal Ministry of Agriculture and Food Security; Temitope Fashedemi; said the meeting is a platform to review policies and ensure the development of the sector.
“The 46th meeting of the National Council on Agriculture and Food Security is a platform for reviewing ongoing policies and programs towards ensuring agricultural development in the nation.
“We hope to sustain our collaborations on agribusiness initiatives by providing incentives to researchers, farmers and processors, and therewith, increase agricultural output and match national requirements.
“This will encourage more individuals and institutions to invest in agriculture and create livelihoods for the populace.
“This process is to assess the effect of the ongoing initiatives and fine-tune strategies for a meaningful impact on the economy.
“It is to sustain the commodity value chain concept of strengthening sectoral linkages, import substitution initiatives, value-added processing and export oriented activities,” he added.
Also speaking, the Director, Planning and Policy Coordination, Ibrahim Tanimu said the meeting “will also provide an opportunity to share experiences and good practices on value chain development in the agricultural sector.
“We all continue to provide an enabling environment for value chain development across our respective States to engender food security in the country”, he said.
Cross River State Commissioner for Agriculture and Irrigation Development; Johnson Ebokpo in his remarks underscored the pressing and global challenge of climate change.
He tasked participants to come up with a collective commitment that will build a strong resilience to the many effects of climate change.