Nigeria’s Minister of Agriculture and Food Security, Senator Abubakar Kyari, on Monday, disclosed that the ministry injected an estimated value of N309 billion into the economy within the last one year.
Kyari gave the hint while making his presentation during the ongoing Ministerial Sectoral Update, a platform President Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s cabinet members are using to present their scorecard to Nigerians.
Kyari, who was accompanied by the Minister of State for Agriculture and Food Security, Senator Aliyu Abdullahi said in order to boost food security in the country, the government launched dry season farming with cultivation of 118,657 hectares of wheat in 15 states.
He said in addition, the Federal Government equally supported 107,429 wheat farmers, stressing that efforts culminated into injecting “an estimated N309 billion into the economy.”
The Minister equally hinted that the government, within the period, released 42,000mt of assorted food commodities to the National Emergency Management Agency, NEMA, from the the Federal Government of Nigeria Strategic Food Reserve, adding that “58,500 metric tons of milled rice was equally released to damped escalating prices.”
On measures put in place by the government in response to persistent food inflation, Kyari disclosed that the government distributed 60,432mt of improved seeds, as well as 887,255mt of seedlings, as well as received 2.15 million bags of fertilizers from the Central Bank of Nigeria, CBN, for distribution to farmers free of charge.
Other measures introduced by the current administration included “improvement of farmland security with provision of additional resources to Agro Rangers and other security agencies.”
On how the government had curtailed pest and diseases, the Minister said an initiative was put in place to tackle ginger blight by disbursing financial support to affected ginger farmers, among others.
In the area of agricultural research activities, Kyari said 23 crop varieties were improved within the period.
He further revealed that the government “distributed 33,200nos of equipment to farmers across Nigeria; procurement/distribution of 14,056,467 doses of anthrax spore foot and mouth diseases vacancies in the North Central, North West, South West and South-South zones.”
Others are: establishment of health centres and veterinary hospitals; capacity building of livestock farmers, as well as facilitation of 14,926,469 vaccinations for animals.
On the government’s plan to strengthen mechanization, the Minister said 10,000 tractors would be rolled out, at least 2,000 per year, with implements and accessories.
