Feed Nigeria Summit will build Agribusiness– Minister

The Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development, Mr Muhammad Nanono, has said the 2021 Feed Nigeria Summit would build Nigeria’s Agribusiness ecosystem efficiently and sustainably.
The minister said this at the opening of the 2021 Feed Nigeria Summit with the theme entitled: ”Post COVID-19: A Repaired Food System, Pathway to a Revived Economy,” in Abuja.
He said there was need to reposition the agricultural sector as the key economic growth vehicle.
Nanono said the theme could not be ”more pivotal to the national discourse on how to create a sustainable growth trajectory, using agriculture as the leverage to revive and stabilise the economy.”
He said the Summit offered stakeholders opportunity to review the new agricultural policy, the National Agricultural Transformation and Innovation Plan (NATIP) and to discuss the implementation vehicles for the processes.
“The Federal Government has continued to implement new strategies to aid the development of the agricultural sector and strengthen the value chain.
“The focus of the National Agricultural Transformation and Innovation Plan (NATIP) is to aid a new strategy that strengthens the agricultural financial system, reducing food imports and helping to refocus attention on agriculture as a key driver of the Nigerian economy.
“The current administration, under the supervision of President Muhammadu Buhari, is keen on creating an enabling environment for the private sector to lead the recovery of the agricultural sector.
“At the Federal Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development, we remain gallant in our support of strategic private sector incursions that will provide the much-needed infrastructure, systems, control processes and oversight to ensure a nuanced commercial development of Nigeria’s agricultural market,” he said
In his remarks, the Minister of State for Agriculture and Rural Development, Mr Mustapha Shehuri, noted that the theme of the summit was apt enough.
He said it would further accelerate the discussion that would illuminate the pathway to National Food Security.
Shehuri was represented by Mrs Karima Babangida, Director, Federal Department of Agriculture.
He said that for a sustainable food system, Nigeria must rise to overcome the challenge of poor quality food supplies, hunger and malnutrition among others.
“The Federal Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development will continue to ensure that agriculture moves rapidly towards modern technologies so that it exerts significant influence on the Nigeria food system,” he said.
Also speaking, Prof. Eustace Iyayi, Private Sector Chair, Feed Nigeria Summit Organising Committee, said that formidable partnership were very important in finding solutions to the issue of food insecurity.
He noted that while the Federal Government had provided some interventions to address the issue of food insecurity, the outcome of the summit would, hopefully, provide a lasting solution to the challenge.
Other stakeholders who spoke at the summit called for support of critical infrastructural provision and technological innovation.
They said these would help to drive the policy thrust of the ministry geared towards achieving food and nutrition security, create jobs for teeming Nigeria youths and boost the economy.