Caribbean countries have expressed their readiness to extend their skills and expertise in the area of food security to Nigeria, the Consular General of Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, Dr Levi Odoe, has said.
Odoe disclosed this yesterday while briefing newsmen on the efforts to enhance food production in Nigeria and deepen cooperation between the two regions.
Odoe, who is also the envoy of the Republic of Guyana to Africa on Trade and Investment, said bilateral relations between Nigeria and the Caribbean should incorporate agriculture and not only the oil gas sector, as food security has become an urgent issue in the world.
He appealed to the Nigerian government to revive the culture of backyard farming among civil servants and citizens in the country for subsistence production of crops like okra, melon, cassava, yam, and raise animals like fowl, sheep and goats to sustain themselves.
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While advising the Nigerian government to concentrate majorly in agriculture as is being done in the Caribbean, he said it was a means of creating national security and a healthy society.
“I think by a simple method of backyard garden we would have plants in the market and more food,” he said.
Speaking on efforts to strengthen cooperation between Nigeria and Caribbean countries, Odoe said some Nigerian entrepreneurs are already using the opportunities under the South-South Cooperation to expand their exports to countries like the Bahamas, Barbados, Brazil and Guyana, adding that some countries have had to lease land for agriculture in the islands and ship them back home.
He said with the existing rapport between the Nigerian government and countries in the Caribbean, more direct flight routes are being created besides Antigua, to include Guyana, St Lucia and the rest.
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