FG To Join Forces With States For Food Sufficiency

Maize Farmer

The federal government has reaffirmed its willingness to collaborate with state governments in order to attain food sufficiency in the next two to three years in the country.


The minister of state for  agriculture and rural development, Senator Heineken Lokpobiri, reaffirmed this when he received in audience the deputy governor of Katsina State, Alhaji Mamir Yakubu, in his office last week.

The minister said, “The ministry is willing to partner with state governments to enable us attain   self-sufficiency  in food production in the next two or three years as we cannot  do it alone. Since the federal government does not have farms, it will do more of interventions, it is time to foster a stronger relation with  states.”

He noted that the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD) and other development partners have mapped out a lot of agricultural programmes across all states of the federation to upscale the growth and development of the nation’s agricultural sector. He also assured the Katsina government of the ministry’s supports and interventions in its bid to develop the agricultural sector.

Earlier in his remarks, Yakubu commended the efforts of the development partners, particularly the IFAD in the development of agriculture   in the state and solicited for more interventions from the federal government.

He said that Katsina State is endowed with good arable lands and 80 per cent of its population farms in different crops such as rice, maize, wheat, sorghum, millet, vegetable,  fruits, among others. He stated that about 5,000 hectares of land which spreads across the three senatorial zones in the state had been provided as a grazing area for the national grazing programme of the federal government.

Yakubu exuded optimism that with the focus of the present administration on the development of agriculture as an alternative to oil, the people of Katsina State would leverage on the opportunities to further develop their agricultural endowments.