Nigeria: Our Policies Are to Make Nigeria Food Sufficient - Adesina ... N591bn Flows Into Economy So Far

The 40th meeting of the National Council on Agriculture and Rural Development held in Abeokuta, Ogun state last week was another opportunity for Dr. Akinwumi Adesina, the Minister of Agriculture, to reel out the efforts of the present administration at making the country sufficient in food production.

Coming on the heels of the award given to Nigeria for achieving the Millennium Development Goal (MDG) 1 on hunger, three years ahead of schedule, Akinwumi Adesina said the country could not afford to be a net importer of food anymore.

"Nigeria can no longer continue to be a sleeping giant. We have to wake up and turn Nigeria into a global powerhouse in agriculture," he said. Adesina said the government is implementing a time-bound aggressive plan to unlock Nigeria's potential to become an agricultural powerhouse.

"Yearly, Nigeria imports over 11 billion U.S. dollars worth of wheat, rice, sugar and fish. However, Nigeria is importing what it can produce in abundance; this import dependency is hurting Nigerian farmers, displacing local production and creating unemployment.

He explained that the vision of government is to make Nigeria an agricultural and industrialised economy, using a government-enabled private sector-driven approach," he said. Speaking on the efforts of the government to use agriculture as a tool for economic development, Adesina disclosed that the Agricultural Transformation Agenda (ATA) introduced by the administration has been able to end age long corruption in fertilizer distribution in the country through the Growth Enhancement Support Scheme (GES).

Nigerian Farmers' net income has increased by 174 Billion Naira due to the ATA's activities in five value chains, Cassava, Rice (Dry Season and Rainy Season), Sorghum, Maize and Cotton. He said billion of Naira has been saved for the government through the policy, adding that the ATA is focused more on value addition with the priority areas as cotton, onion, tomato, sorghum, maize, soybean, oil palm, cocoa, rice, cassava, livestock and fisheries.

Adesina disclosed the Federal Government had generated N591 billion from the cultivation of value-chains in rice, cassava, sorghum, maize and cotton within two years.