During a reception held by the Ministry for him and the Minister of State, Aliyu Sabi Abdullahi, Abubakar Kyari, the newly inaugurated Minister of Agriculture and Food Security, expressed his team’s objective to not only ensure the food security of Nigerians but also to tap into the country’s potential for exporting food.
Kyari acknowledged that Nigeria is currently grappling with hunger, largely due to issues such as flooding and insecurity. However, he remains optimistic that by making focused and collective endeavors, the challenges can be overcome.
“We know the challenge that we face now, hunger is one of the big problems that we have in this country. When we say hunger, it also means food and there are challenges to food security, insecurity is one of them, flooding is another, and there are other issues.
“For me and for my colleague the Minister of State, and even state governors, the biggest hope that we have is the political will, driven by President Bola Tinubu.
“I think we have a big challenge but it is not insurmountable. Our target is not only to secure and feed the country but also to export food which we have that potential and it is just there.”
Additionally, Professor Babagana Zulum, the Governor of Borno State, who joined the Ministers at the Ministry, emphasized the importance of developing a comprehensive and enduring strategy to tackle food insecurity in Nigeria.
He highlighted that the current viable option for the country is to allocate resources towards commercial agriculture and embrace innovative agricultural practices like irrigation, green technology, and more.
“What we are doing now, providing palliatives to Nigerians will never solve our problems because these are shorter term solutions, we must look for medium and longer-term sustainable solutions that will address the problem of insecurity, food insecurity in Nigeria.
“Therefore the only alternative we have is to invest in commercial agriculture, modern agriculture, irrigated agriculture, green technology, emerging technology, and so on, that is the only solution. Our population is growing in quick geometrical ratio while our food supply is dwindling, unless something is being done, we shall never get rid of these problems,” Zulum said.