Food Sufficiency:Ex-Gov Seeks Workable Agric Policies

The first Executive Gov
ernor of Nasarawa State, Senator Abdullahi Adamu, has said that workable agricultural policies and consistency in implementation could help to achieve food sufficiency in Nigeria.
Adamu, who is also the Chairman, Board of Trustees, National Agricultural Foundation of Nigeria (NAFN), an NGO, said this when he featured in a Forum in Abuja recently.
“I want to believe that if we’ve got workable policies and we reduce the extent of inconsistencies with our policies for agricultural development, maybe, in the foreseeable future, we will get self-sufficient.
“And unless you know who you are, how many mouths you have the responsibility of feeding; just like a household leader.
“You must know how many wives you have, how many children you have, how many dependent relations come to eat from your bowl and be able to know how you plan.
“In the same way, every government that wants success must be able to have a reasonable appreciation as to the population of its citizenry.
“Must be able to have an appreciation as the influx of other nationals into the country to even time, must be able to have an appreciation as to what are the staple food for the citizenry and be able to determine the quantum of production for each of the items of food crops that is needed.“
Adamu told The Tides’s source that to determine the quantum of production, each state must be identified with a particular geo-agricultural area in order to determine what crop does better in a particular place.
This, he added, would not only help determine the quantum of production for the populace but also help to attain food sufficiency.
He said, “In specific terms, we must be able to identify particular geo-agricultural areas and say this crop will do well in this place, that other crop will do well in that place.
“Then, we can sit down at the local and state government levels and say how much maize do we want to produce for this year, for next year or for the next five years?
“What is the rate of increase of our population? We need a determination as to the quantum of food requirement for this population and then what to get to the market outside Nigeria.
“Unless we do this, talking of food sufficiency, we will just be toying with the whole idea.“
On the progress of the Growth Enhancement Support (GES), Adamu told The Tide that not much had been done, adding that the programme was “still on the starting pace’’.
He, however, advised that the Federal Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development should consistently provide progress reports on beneficiaries of the programmes as an indication that there’s advancement.
This, the senator added, would help the agriculture sector achieve its goals.