NBS moves to address food shortage

In a move to address food insecurity in Nigeria, 17 southern states stakeholders in National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) met, yesterday, in Asaba, Delta State to seek solutions to hunger in the land by conducting Agricultural Sample Census that would assist governments to formulate policies to food insecurity and other related challenges.

Delta State Commissioner for Economic Planning, Dr. Barry Gbe, at a two-day Stakeholders Sensitisation Workshop on National Agricultural Sample Census (NASC), said the exercise, done last about 30 years ago, had become imperative because it would help in policy formulation and providing the nation relevant information on the structure of the economy. 

Gbe, who spoke through his Director of Statistics, Dr. Lawrence Igho, expressed optimism that the crop of statisticians assembled would achieve the envisaged result.

He said: “Reliable and timely data remain the key to effective planning because very soon data will become the new oil, hence provisions of basic data on the agricultural sector is key to one of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) of ending hunger and eradicating poverty.” 

While commending the NBS for resolving to address the challenges of insufficient and inconsistent data in agricultural planning, he believed that the adoption of a participatory approach involving all stakeholders would give room for transparency, which would create a sense of ownership to contribute meaningfully to the achievement of the objective of the census.