FMARD clears air on collaboration with land development agency

The Federal Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development (FMARD) has said the ministry has no collaboration with the National Land Development Agency (NALDA), saying every move to ensure synergize is always turned down. FMARD Permanent Secretary (PS), Dr. Ernest Umakhihe disclosed this to the visiting participants at course Number 44 (2022), National Institute for Policy and Strategic Studies (NIPSS)  at Abuja.

This response has cleared the air about any synergy operating between the ministry and NALDA towards ensuring food security saying that ‘‘NALDA was established 1992 and scraped 2003. It was  resuscitated in 2017/2018 if am right and to tell you that the collaboration between the Ministry and NALDA is not there, and by the act creating it, NALDA is now under the  presidency, you invite them for a meeting,  they will tell you they have nothing to do with Agric ministry, that is the truth’’

 ‘’ And by mandate, they are supposed to be fully involved in land preparation for farmers at the crop level, it will be for the ministry to take up from there, but that synergy is missing, and am not afraid to say it anytime any day that NALDA is on its own as it is under the presidency, and not under the Ministry of Agriculture, so if you have a visit to the presidency NALDA will be there and the question of its achievement till date can be put to them with the challenges they are facing to strengthening the local farmers at the grassroots’’