Minister Laments Weak Food System as Stakeholders Explore Measures to Reposition Agriculture

By James Emejo and Folalumi Alaran

The Minister of State for Agriculture and Rural Development, Mustapha Shehuri, yesterday said the country’s food system was weak and vulnerable to shocks.

Also, the Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development, Alhaji Sabo Nanono, said unemployment remained the greatest problem currently facing the country.
He disagreed with suggestions that food insecurity currently posed a greater danger.

Both ministers spoke in Abuja at the ongoing 2021 edition of the Feed Nigeria Summit, themed: “Post-COVID19: A Repaired Food System, Pathway to a Revived Economy”.

However, Shehuri who was represented by the Director, Federal Department of Agriculture, Hajia Karima Babangida, tasked participants at the summit to assist in re-examining the weak link in the food system with a view to strengthening it for an agricultural system that will work for Nigeria and stabilise food security.
He said,”There is no doubt that the current Nigerian food system is weak and vulnerable to shock. The summit, no doubt will assist the ministry to re-examine the weak link with a view to strengthen it for an Agricultural System that will work for Nigeria and stabilize the Food Security.”
He added that the federal government was determined to create a functional food system that will guarantee all citizens an unrestricted access to good quality nutritious and safe food.
“This underscores the various programmes and interventions that are on-going in the ministry in areas of agricultural livelihood and supports, food safety and provision of infrastructures in different ecological areas of the country”, he said.
Shehuri said that the country must rise to overcome challenge of poor quality food supplies, hunger, malnutrition and improper food habit of promoting food wastage.
According to him,”This is the acceptable consumption behaviour globally that an average Nigerian especially in the urban areas pays little or no attention. If we devote so much to produce, we should pay more attention to avoid waste because of its economic and environmental impact negatively.”
Nanono, however, argued that though the country may produce enough food to eat but people still sleep with hunger because they lacked adequate money to buy food- given that many do not have jobs.
He said,”If we do not focus on how to remove this fundamental issue of unemployed youths and move them to be gainfully employed we are doing nothing.
“Unless we create that relationship and make it strong, the poverty we are talking about will not go away”.
The minister specifically lamented how the country lost its bearing in the textile industry which used to be a major employer of labour in the 1980s before the sector lost its steam in subsequent years.
He, nonetheless commended recent initiatives by some agricultural industrialists, pointing out that with the ongoing massive investment in sugar, Nigeria will be self-sufficient in the production of the commodity in the next two years, thereby meeting the 1.5 million tones in annual demand.
The minster also announced that the mechanization policy if the government would kick off by first quarter of next year, 2022 adding that it will cover 632 Local Government Areas, ‘private sector driven services centers, with equipped tractors, farming implements, storage and IT facilities.
The minister said the ministry remained committed to working to support key value chain activities including input distribution, farm production, processing, distribution and marketing by providing better coordination and infrastructural support.
He said the government will also continue to deliver interventions that address the challenges in the value chain to ensure that the post- COVID-19 agricultural sector is strengthened and positioned for growth.