Farmers ask President Buhari for food security Special Adviser

The  All Farmers Association of Nigeria (AFAN) has asked for the office of Special Adviser to the President on Food security matters, saying this would effectively help in checkmating some of the misleading steps of the present Minister of Agriculture, Alhaji Sabo Nanono.
This was said in press-release made available to us today.

AFAN under the leadership of Architect  Kabir Ibrahim has alleged the Agric Minister of being a serious threat to food security, and thereby called for the need to quickly replace him with a special adviser on food security matter.

The full text of the statement titled ‘’ The several risk factors in the attainment of food security in Nigeria aside from covid-19 pandemic: The need for prompt action’’ reads thus ‘’

THE SEVERAL RISK FACTORS IN THE ATTAINMENT OF FOOD SECURITY IN NIGERIA ASIDE FROM THE COVID-19 PANDEMIC: THE NEED FOR PROMPT ACTION.

The COVID-19 pandemic is certainly a threat to the attainment of food sufficiency along with many other factors such as insecurity in the North East, North West, Climate Change and inadequate Mechanization as well as Post Harvest losses.

In the beginning the farmers could not readily access their farms, move their produce, inputs such as fertilizers and other Agrochemicals due to the general lockdown all around the country.

As time went on the four Ministers of Agriculture, Defence, Interior and Police Affairs evolved a joint task force to ease and ensure the seamless movement of produce and fertilizers and other inputs.

The President addressed the nation soon afterwards and urged the security agents to allow farmers to readily go to their farms and AFAN immediately swung into action by providing its members with passes to further ease their movement too.

Unfortunately this did not go without a lot of difficulty because the HMA antagonized AFAN by promoting an illegitimate person to represent the farmers in the Joint Technical Task Team (JTTT) at the National Level but as God would have it across the country about 95% of the State JTTT worked with the legitimate AFAN executives.

A very serious threat to the search for food security today is the action or inaction of the HMA in many areas viz;

1. Incoherence in implementation of guide lines and policy decisions in collaboration with stakeholders.

2. Outright misrepresentation of government decisions in crucial matters such as pest control and distribution of support to genuine farmers.

3. Setting back the hand of the clock in areas where definite gains have been made such as the PFI and seed Act 2019.

The HMA is hell bent on getting wavers for some people to import fertilizers into the country inspite of its availability and he works with others to condemn the quality of the NPK blended under the direct supervision the PFI.

4. Causing disharmony among the farmers by poking his nose in the affairs of NGOs.

5. Antagonizing all other players in the Agriculture space by causing a lot of ill feeling in the running of the activities of the Ministry as if everything devolves from Kano State instead of the whole nation.

6. Causing disharmony within the Ministry by alienating some directors and making the Director of planning do the work of so many others.

7. Lack of consultation with all relevant staff, the legislature, other MDAs and the CBN as well as the Media in discharging the responsibilities of the FMARD.

8. Non involvement of the HMS in the day to day running of the Ministry.

9. Lack of monetary discipline and transparency generally.

In order to avert the looming food insecurity occasioned by all these myriad risk factors it will be prudent for the administration to quickly and decisively appoint a full time SPECIAL ADVISER on food security to take over from the HMA and superintend over the overall FOOD SYSTEM!