By Murtala Adewale, Kano

Minister of State for Agriculture and Food Security, Dr. Aliyu Sabi Abdullahi, has assured that the Federal Government is ready to rejuvenate agricultural productivity across the 774 local LGAs to guarantee food security.

Abdullahi disclosed that the government would unveil the National Farm Soil Health Scheme to support farmers with the best agronomy practices and boost farm production across the federation.

The Minister worried about the impact of land degradation, indiscriminate application of agrochemicals on farms, and climate change to reduce soil nutrients and production.

The Minister spoke during a media interactive session at the Centre for Dry Land Agriculture, Bayero University, Kano on the sideline of the National Conference of Soil Science Association of Nigeria held in Kano.

He said though Nigeria has about 73 per cent arable land, 50 per cent is not cultivated while the portion being used for farming can not yield above the African average

“When this administration came, we identified several problems militating food security, critical among the issues is our land. Take Maize for instance, some African countries produce 22,000 tones per hectare but Nigeria is still struggling between 3 to 5 thousand tons per hectare,” Abdullahi said.

“Yes, the government has schemes to support farmers with fertilizer, agro-chemicals, insecticide, and so many inputs but all of these are still not given the desired results as expected, even though our farmers are making progress. It is as a result of bad agronomical practice on the soil health.”

According to the Minister, the new scheme will soon be deployed across the 774 LGA where farmers will be assisted with technology and laboratory analysis to understand the condition of their soil health.

Abdullahi remarked that Nigeria has entered the Green Imperative Project with Brazil to upscale the mechanization scheme and Farmer Service Centre across the 774 LGAs to render services to farmers.

The Minister raised concerns about the activities of portfolio farmers who mostly sit under air conditioning and corner government intervention, preventing the real farmers from the opportunity to benefit.

He challenged farmers to take an interest and participate in government intervention schemes and added that farmers’ non-negligence would pave the way for them.