By; SANI ALIYU, Zaria
The All Farmers Association of Nigeria (AFAN) has lauded President Muhammadu
Arc. Kabiru Ibrahim, President of the association stated this in a paper he presented at the African Union meeting held at Addis Ababa on NIgeria’s efforts on food and nutrition security through the resilience of small holder farmers.
He said as soon as the government was inaugurated, they work began in earnest to develop a policy to drive agriculture which culminated into the launching of Agriculture Promotion Policy (APP) to replace Agricultural Transformation Agenda (ATA) the agricultural policy of the previous administration.
“Upon the public launch of the APP, the CBN in support of the policy, evolved the ABP (Anchor Borrowers Programme) and several interventions”.
According to him, as a result of these interventions, agriculture will soon occupy the the top spot.
The president said there are many bills passed by the legislature to support agricultural production, chief among which are, National Agricultural Seed Council Act. 2019, Plant Variety Protection, ARCN Act, resuscitation of NFRA and several others.
“A new policy on National Agricultural Technology and Innovation Policy (NATIP) will soon be launched to replace the APP which expired in 2020,” he disclosed.
He said Nigerian farmers are poised to ensuring food sufficiency in the country in spite of so many challenges ranging from insecurity, climate change and the presence of inadequate technology.
“The farmers are showing a lot of resilience by working assiduously to produce what Nigerians and our neighbors eat sustainably despite the COVID-19 pandemic and various other challenges,” he said.
Arc. Kabiru Ibrahim said there is a lot of work to do in order to attain food security in Nigeria but so far, what has been achieved is quite remarkable and may be considered to be work in progress.
