• Ask Ekiti indigenes in Diaspora to return home to invest in agric
• FG inaugurates ministerial working group on food security
Ekiti State Council of Traditional Rulers has appealed to the management of the Agbeyewa Farm to prioritise massive food production to solve the problem of food insecurity in the state.
Chairman of the council and Olojudo of Ido-Ekiti, Oba Ayorinde Ilori-Faboro, stated this, yesterday, when he led over 15 monarchs across the state on inspection of the Agbeyewa Farm in Ipao-Ekiti in Ikole Local Council of the state.
The traditional rulers also pledged to propagate to their subjects the need for Ekiti sons in the Diaspora to emulate what Agbeyewa Farms is doing by coming back home to invest in agriculture.
The traditional rulers, however, said that the commitment of the Agbeyewa Farm Chairman, John Olajide, in the investment spanning across five different communities in Ikole Local Council of the state would help in stimulating economic development and ending food insecurity in the country.
Managing Director of the farms, Seyi Aiyeleso, commended the monarchs for the visit to the expansive farm, saying that the visit not only served as a morale booster but also reinforced the need for more collaboration with the traditional institutions in achieving the company’s desired goals.
Aiyeleso, while eulogising the efforts of the chairman in providing the enabling environment for the over 1,000 workforce, said the farm is moving towards achieving the cultivation of 5,000 hectares of cassava plantation set as target for 2025.
RELATEDLY, the Federal Government has inaugurated the Agricultural Sector Working Group (ASWG) to enhance food security, nutrition, and sustainable agricultural development across the country.
The working group will be led by the Minister of Agriculture and Food Security, Abubakar Kyari; Minister of State for Agriculture, Sabi Abdullahi; Permanent Secretary, Dr Marcus Ogunbiyi, among other key stakeholders in the sector.
The minister, during the inauguration of the ASWG, yesterday, in Abuja, said the working group would serve as a critical mechanism, providing a forum for monitoring progress, enhancing accountability, and mobilising collective action towards the achievement of the shared agricultural goals.
Abubakar said that the ASWG would work together to provide advisory services and policy initiatives to guide the sustainability growth and development of the sector in Nigeria as well as facilitate the implementation of the resolutions of the African Union Heads of State on agrifood system transformation in line with 2025 Kampala Declaration in the country, among others.
In his message, the Minister of Finance and the Coordinating Minister of the Economy, Wale Edun, recalled that the Malabo Agenda discussed in Kampala in January 2025 raised concerns about the slow progress, noting that the Continent was not on track to meet with the Comprehensive Africa Agricultural Development Programme (CAADP) aimed at reducing poverty and increasing food security by 2025.
