Agriculture
ANAMBRA State Commissioner for Agriculture, Dr Foster Ihejiofor, has raised alarm over looming threat to food safety and sufficiency in the nation if loose ends were not tightened by various stakeholders in the agricultural sector of the economy.
He identified such threats to include Massive flooding, Russian/Ukraine war, Insecurity in the North of Nigeria and escalating food prices but quickly added that Anambra State Government had put machinery in motion to check resultant effect in the state.
“It is pertinent to note that Nigeria is on the verge of a severe food crisis. We have the Russian/Ukraine war that has disrupted the fertilizer and grain supply chain.We have massive flooding that has destroyed billions of naira worth of crops.”
While attributing escalating food prices to fast depreciating naira, he pointed out that rising incidents of insecurity in the Northern part of the country is posing danger to agri-business supply chain.
The commissioner who was speaking during a press briefing, said the Anambra State Government was not unmindful of the situation as it had started initiating measures to cushion the economic shocks on the people of the state.
“We just completed the first phase of the oil palm revolution and coconut economy by distributing 220,000 oil palm seedlings and 150,000 coconut seedlings to the people.This is a massive achievement by this government that will herald a new agro-economy for us.
“This is just the first phase of the project as the government intends to plant one million oil palm and coconut nut seedlings every year.”
He described the agricultural policies of the government under the watch of Prof. Chukwuma Soludo as very timely to address the needs of the people, noting that so many achievements had been recorded in such a period of time even as he called for a concerted effort to fight hunger and starvation to a standstill. (Ministry of Information)
A.I
Tags: Dr Foster Ihejiofor flooding Prof. Chukwuma Soludo
