‘Plant Health Key to Achieving Food Security’

James Emejo in Abuja
The Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development, Mohammed Abubakar, has said that the country’s ability to meet nutritional needs, dietary preferences and food security depended upon condition of plant health.

He said healthy plants also determine a thriving economy stressing that the “healthier our plant resources are, the more business value we can generate from crop agriculture, and create decent jobs in the crop value chains”.

The minister, at a median briefing to commemorate the International Day of Plant Health, added that healthy plants boost the confidence of the country’s trading partners in the quality and safety of plants and plant products we export.

He also said that plant health threats undermine food security and increase the vulnerability of livelihoods dependent on crop value chains.

According to him, the country loses 50 per cent of its annual farm gate value to the damages of pests which cause yield and quality losses, reduce food availability, and increase food prices.

He added that the threats to plant health had proliferated with the increase in international trade and travel, resulting in growth in the volume and diversity of plants and plant products that arrive in different countries.

However, he said the administration of President Muhammadu Buhari, therefore, considers plant safety as a national priority.

Abubakar said, in demonstration of his commitment to strengthening our plant protection system, Buhari had assented to the Nigeria Agricultural Quarantine Service (Establishment) Bill in 2018 to capacitate NAQS, which is the National Plant Protection Organization for Nigeria, to manage and minimise risks to the agricultural economy, food safety, and the environment.

He said that the federal government was also undertaking a massive strategic intervention to equip the NAQS post-entry station and training school in Ibadan to serve as a center of excellence in plant health.
He added that the service is planning to establish six plant health clinics across the geopolitical zones of the country.

Abubakar said, “Plants are our lifeline. We can’t breathe without them. Plants produce 98 per cent of the oxygen we inhale. They also constitute the base of the human and animal food chains, accounting for at least 80 per cent of the food human beings consume.

“Herbs, shrubs, flowers, and trees furnish our landscape. The plants that creep and those that climb, those we use as tokens of love, and those that stand as towering canopies for birds, are all vital economic, ecological, and social assets.

“In the biodiversity of the plant community, we find gifts of profound cultural and religious experiences, aesthetic amenity, and potent medicine.”