FG to increase food reserve to 219,900 tons with N2.5bn

The Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development, Dr Mahmood Abubakar, has said that the federal government will increase national food reserve to 219,900 metric tons from the current 109,657 metric tons next year.

The national food reserve under the 2022 appropriation bill submitted to the National Assembly by President Muhammadu Buhari is expected to gulp over N2.5 billion, the highest amount allocated in three years.  

Speaking at this year’s National Agricultural Show, which was part of activities marking the World Food Day, the minister said, “The ministry, this year alone, has raised her national food reserve stock to 109,657MT, a figure expected to be further increased to 219,900MT by the end of 2022.”

Dr Abubakar said Nigeria recorded a boost in the production of major staple crops, especially maize and rice, which rose from 12.8 and 12.3 to 13.94 and 14.28 million tons respectively.

He said, “The same is obtainable for cassava, with production increase from 58.47MT in 2018 to 73.91MT, and even projected to rise to 93.6 by 2023. Growth has also been recorded for groundnut, tomato and sorghum.

“Beef, dairy and fish production also rose by 166 per cent, 146 per cent and 11 per cent respectively between 2020 and 2021.”

Speaking on the Agriculture for Food and Job Plan (AFJP), a component of President Buhari’s Nigeria Economic Sustainability Plan (NESP) which targets five to 10 million jobs in the agricultural sector with zero interest loans to farmers, the minister said the first phase of the scheme had produced over 1.1 million beneficiaries across all states and the FCT.

He explained that, “Out of the five million planned beneficiaries for AFJP, the Federal Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development has empowered 1,138,000 farmer-beneficiaries across the 36 states and the FCT under the first phase of implementation.”

Also speaking at the event, the Country Representative of the Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) of the United Nations (UN), Fred Kafeero, said FAO was working with governments across the globe for the transformation of agri-food systems to ensure that they were rooted in several agro-ecologies; focusing on sustainable natural resource management. 

Kafeero, who was represented by Dr Guy Kouame, the Team lead of ECTAD, said FAO had been cooperating with the Federal Government of Nigeria by assisting it in planning and implementation of agricultural policies, strategies and programmes.

He said, “FAO’s work in the country focuses on improving food and nutrition security and the livelihoods of smallholder farmers, thereby creating the impetus for economic growth in the agriculture and rural sector.”