AFAN Reaffirms Commitment to Achieving Food Security

Gilbert Ekugbe

The All Farmers Association of Nigeria (AFAN) has expressed commitment to meeting the food requirements of Nigeria in spite of the many challenges besetting the agricultural sector such as insecurity, climate change and inadequate technology.

The National President of AFAN, Mr. Kabir Ibrahim, said that Nigerian farmers are poised to ensure food sufficiency in the country, noting that Nigerian farmers are showing a lot of resilience by working assiduously to produce what Nigerians and its neighbors eat sustainably despite the Covid-19 pandemic and various other challenges.

Ibrahim also said that the National Agricultural Technology and Innovation Policy (NATIP), which would be launched soon to replace the Agricultural Promotion Policy (APP) that expired in 2020, would boost food production in Nigeria.

He said that more work would be done to attain food security in Nigeria.

He said: “President Muhammadu Buhari’s administration pledged to make agriculture the mainstay of Nigeria’s economy due to the restlessness in the oil producing areas and the country’s over dependence on oil thereby abandoning agriculture.”

According to him, as soon as the government was inaugurated work began in earnest to develop a policy to drive agriculture, which culminated in the launching of APP to replace the Agricultural Transformation Agenda.

“Upon the public launch of the APP, the CBN in support of the policy, evolved the ABP (Anchor Borrower Program) and several interventions. “As a result of these interventions agriculture soon occupied the front banner and the National Agribusiness Investment Plan was evolved,” he added.

He noted that the National Assembly passed so many bills to support agricultural production, which include the NASC seed act 2019, Plant Variety Protection (PVP), ARCN Act, resuscitation of NFRA and several others.