Agric sector urged to deploy strategies for food security

Stakeholders in the agricultural sub-sector in the country have been charged to dispassionately explore the best approach to sustaining food security, employment generation, and wealth creation in the country.

The charge was given by the Permanent Secretary, Federal Ministry of Agriculture and Food Security, Mr. Temitope Fashedemi, while declaring open the technical session of the 46th Regular meeting of the National Council on Agriculture and Food Security held in Calabar Monday.

He said the 46th Meeting of the National Council on Agriculture and Food Security with the theme” Resilience to climate change towards sustainable food security” is a platform for reviewing ongoing policies and programs towards ensuring agricultural development in the nation.

This process, he said, is to assess the effect of the ongoing initiatives and fine-tune strategies for a meaningful impact on the economy and to sustain the commodity value chain concept of strengthening sectoral linkages, import substitution initiatives, value-added processing, and export-oriented activities.

Fashedemi said a take in this direction is to sustain the collaborations on agribusiness initiatives by providing incentives to researchers, farmers, and processors, and therewith, increase agricultural output and match national requirements.

This, he said, will encourage more individuals and institutions to invest in agriculture and create livelihoods for the populace.

In his opening address, the Cross River State Commissioner for Agriculture and Irrigation Development, Johnson Ebokpo, charged stakeholders at the meeting to embark on a crucial dialogue that will shape the agricultural sector and drive sustainable food security.

“As we already know, food security has been a core aspect of the renewed hope agenda of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu and is equally the basis for programmes and policies of state governments especially the people’s first agenda of Governor Bassey Edet Otu of Cross River State.”

The Commissioner charged participant to engage in constructive dialogue, share best practices and collectively chart a course towards proferring sustainable solutions to food production amidst the climate change issues the country are faced with.

Ebokpo noted that the decisions and commitments made in the meeting would reverberate beyond the gathering and have a great impact on the livelihoods of millions of farmers and the entire citizenry of the nation and the results be of benefit to all and sundry.

He called on participants at the meeting to seize this opportunity to forge partnerships, leverage innovative approaches, and advance the shared vision of fighting food insecurity and ending global hunger, a fight that will propel the nation towards a climate-resilient and food-secure future for all.