The National Agricultural Land Development Agency has flagged off its ‘grow your vegetables’ campaign with 200 farmers in Abuja.
Speaking at the training of farmers to kick start the programme in Abuja, the Executive Secretary of the agency, Prince Paul Ikonne, said it is time the country looked inward in terms of producing our food and eating what we produce.
“We are starting off from here in Abuja, the next stop will be in Lagos, then Port Harcourt so that we can sensitise them. The FCT beneficiaries are 200, we have provided them with hybrid seeds like pepper, tomato, onion and pumpkin, also fertilizer, to encourage them to start growing their own food,” he said.
The ES said going forward, those that were not able to be trained should take the advantage of the information provided by the agency to begin to grow their vegetables at home, adding that “it is doable and they have all it takes to do it and I believe they can do it.”
“President Muhammadu Buhari has mandated NALDA to encourage all Nigerians to grow what they eat and eat what we grow and one of the easiest ways to get everyone on board is to introduce grow your vegetable programme which, whether you are a landlord or tenant, you can grow the food within your environment using used bags or broken buckets.”
He also called on estate developers to create space for growing vegetables so that residents of such estates can produce their vegetables.
Also speaking, Minister of the FCT, Mohammad Bello, represented by the Managing Director, Abuja Enterprise, Shehu Abdulkadir, said effort must be made to intensify agricultural production for food security and poverty alleviation.
