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The Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development, Mohammed Abubakar, yesterday reassured Nigerians that there were plans to prevent food shortage in Nigeria in spite of reports of several farms submerged by the ravaging flood across the country.

Addressing reporters after the Federal Executive Council meeting, he said FEC approved the Revised Comprehensive Emergency Preparedness and Response Plan for the Highly Pathogenic Avian Influenza in Nigeria, (the Animal Component), said multiple dry season farming and other measures had been put in place to mitigate the losses to the floods. 

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Asked what the preliminary outlook of the damage to farming by the floods looked like, he said “definitely, it’s telling us that yes, we have lost some farmlands. For example, I can give you one. The Olam, which is a private organization, has a rice mill that has been totally submerged, about 4000 hectares.

“So, there are farmlands that are definitely damaged. But what are we going to do, like I said, it’s to use dry season farming to compensate for this loss. In fact, we are planning to even produce twice during this dry season farming for some of the crops,” he said.

Asked if the government had any plan to forestall food shortage, Abubakar said besides re-strategised planting patterns, funding has been secured to aid the plans.