Food Security: Shettima Sets Up Committee To Fast-Track Agricultural Interventions

In a major push for food security, the Federal Government has established a technical committee to accelerate livestock development and staple crop production nationwide.

Specifically, the committee is to expedite action on strategic interventions in the agricultural sector, targeting wheat and other staple-crop production, as well as livestock development.

The Vice President, Senator Kashim Shettima, constituted the committee on Tuesday during a high-level meeting on the performance of the agricultural sector and strategic interventions at the Presidential Villa, Abuja.

In a statement by his spokesman, Stanley Nkwocha, Senator Shettima charged members of the committee to cross-pollinate ideas and develop a blueprint for implementing strategic interventions in the agricultural sector.

The meeting followed a larger meeting with President Bola Ahmed Tinubu last week, at which agricultural and other multi-sector stakeholders were present.

The committee comprises representatives of the Federal Ministries of Agriculture and Food Security; Water Resources and Sanitation; Livestock Development; Finance Incorporated (MOFI); Special Adviser and Coordinator, Presidential Livestock Reform; Senior Special Assistant to the President on Agribusiness and Productivity Enforcement; the Senior Special Assistant to the President on Food Security; and the Senior Special Assistant to the President on Livestock Development.

Other members of the committee include the Chief Executive Officers of Bank of Industry; Bank of Agriculture; National Agricultural Land Development Authority; National Agricultural Seeds Council; National Agricultural Development Fund; National Centre for Agricultural Mechanisation; National Sugar Council of Nigeria; Nigeria Commodities Exchange; and National Agency for Science and Engineering Infrastructure.

The Committee will be coordinated by the Technical Adviser to the Vice President on Agriculture and Head of the Presidential Food Systems Coordinating Unit, Ms Marion Moon.

The Minister of Agriculture and Food Security, Senator Abubakar Kyari, said that, in addition to setting up the technical committee, the meeting deliberated on addressing critical challenges facing farmers and on leveraging available resources to scale up wheat production and dry-season farming across the country.

He said that during the meeting with the president, the vice president was asked to further identify some of the existing challenges in the agricultural sector and address them.

The Minister explained: “Mr President had always encouraged year-round farming, and we’re looking at coordination between all sectors and also including subnationals, states, and local governments – how we can impact and utilise the prices in famine.”

On the committee, Kyari said, “It is a technical committee with members from the various MDAs to sit and coordinate on behalf of all, and come up with its resolutions in execution. The report of the technical committee will have to be submitted to another committee before presenting to His Excellency, the Vice President and then subsequently to Mr President.”

Earlier in her presentation, Ms Moon noted that agricultural development is a shared responsibility between the federal, state and local governments.

She identified a disconnect among the three tiers of government, advising that the gaps making it difficult to understand what is happening at the subnational level should be bridged.

“So, as we think about what we’re doing – what we should prioritise – it is very important to ensure that we are in harmony and synergy with what is happening at the state level,” she stated.