Acute Fish Shortage Worries FG

The Federal Government, yesterday, expressed concern over challenges bedevilling fish production in the country.
This was stated in a keynote address delivered by Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development, Mohammad Nanono, at the ‘National Dialogue on Transformation and Future of Aquatic Food Systems in Nigeria’.
Nanono also acknowledged and pointed out the important role of fish in food and nutrition security, being a good source of protein for human diet containing essential amino acids required by humans in the right quantities which are usually lacking in most national staple foods.
“Fish, therefore, remains a valuable nutritional supplement and a virile candidate for addressing food and nutrition security in Nigeria.”
He also commended organizers of the dialogue and said the programme is taking into cognisance the current drive towards increasing domestic fish production to reduce importation of frozen fish into the country, which development of the nation’s fisheries and aquaculture sector is highly critical at this time.
He added that the outcome of the dialogue will feed into the development of a consolidated country report.
He said, “Despite the potential impacts of the fisheries and aquaculture resources, the sector is however confronted with numerous challenges including the high cost of inputs, use of unimproved breeds in aquaculture, need for improved access to finance, and many others that will still be deliberated upon today, which are affecting the fisheries and aquaculture sector.
“The aim of the dialogue is, therefore, to deepen our understanding of these challenges while also proffering noteworthy recommendations that would leverage aquatic food systems capacity to contribute to the attainment of SDGs in Nigeria in the coming years.”
Meanwhile, the minister maintained that the President Muhammadu Buhari-led government was seriously committed to all sub-sectors of agriculture, and currently makes effort to boost all value-chains towards becoming efficient and productive with the aim of being self-sufficient.
“The vision of Mr President is to grow Nigeria’s Agricultural Sector to achieve a hunger-free Nigeria through Agriculture that drives income growth, accelerates achievements of food and nutritional security, generates employment, and transforms Nigeria into a leading player in global food/fish market to create wealth for millions of practitioners.
“It is, therefore, important to mention that the Federal Ministry of Agriculture under the present Administration is pursuing a holistic approach to the development of Fisheries and Aquaculture Sub-Sector through the diversification programme of Mr President along the value chain process.
“The Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development is therefore willing to engage and partner with all stakeholders for the development of the sector for economic development, wealth and job creation as well as food and nutrition security”, he said.