Abuja, Aug. 15, 2024 – The Federal Government has set up an Agriculture and Water Resources Joint Action Committee to address the challenges of food insecurity and inflation.
Aliyu Abdullahi, the Minister of State for Agriculture, said this on Thursday at the National Youth Convention organised by the Nigerian Women for Agricultural Progressive and Development Initiative.
Abdullahi said the establishment of the committee was to advance the food security agenda of President Bola Tinubu.
He said the ministry had started dry-season farming to be able to feed its more than 200 million people if it solely depended on six months of raining season for agriculture.
Abdullahi said the country was blessed with abundant water resources with so many river-basin development authorities that should be harnessed for all-year-round farming to ensure food security and self-sufficiency.
“We have approved the Agriculture and Water Resource Joint Action Committee which will be looking at food security to enable us to take on dry-season farming in most of the river basins.
“Our plan is to see how both ministries can collaborate with the River Basin Development Authorities, integrating agricultural experts to enhance farmer livelihoods, increase production and incentivise youth and private sector participation.
“The Ministry of Water Resources brings valuable assets including water resources, land and technical expertise to the partnership; together, we aim to synergize our efforts which provide seeds, inputs and farm machinery essential for food production.
“Currently, we are working with all the farmers in those areas and also working to make sure we remove the things that are constraining the farmers to utilise the opportunity in those areas,” the minister said.
