The technical adviser to Kaduna State Emergency Nutrition Action Plan, Muhammad Hassan Sani, has urged the federal and state governments to build more dams in order to boost food production in the country.
Sani, who made the call yesterday during an interview with LEADERSHIP, said that “all countries that are food secured don’t only farm during the rainy season, they farm all season.
“We need to be producing all year round. We need to have quality and sustainable irrigation in order to solve the food crisis in our country”.
He said the government should place intervention on agriculture, review subsidy on fertilizer at the national and State level and ensure safety of lives and property.
Sani said, “Farm lands are limited and expensive, one hectare of land is N250,000. Fertiliser is sold from N30,000 to N50,000, herbicide is now N5000 per liter. All this is making prices of food go up. Government must review subsidy on agricultural inputs.
“With simple technology, the government can establish dams in all the local government areas and you will see magic, all this food insecurity will be reduced. 90 per cent of insecurity is poverty and frustration, when people become helpless, they see life as a threat that they don’t care to die. Establish structure that will make sure of food security by that you are also increasing income.
“We must bring back subsidy on agriculture, this subsidy was removed and nobody is talking about it. People are not even aware it was removed. Before the coming of the former President Muhammad Buhari, fertilizer was N5,500 and food was supplied in adequate quantity. Gradually and silently, the government removed subsidy.
“Government must put active physical intervention to make farming possible, to make farming a productive way of life and that can be done by bringing subsidy back on all farming activities and then government should consider bringing back intervention and see what we were doing before that was giving us results and bring them back”.
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