Food Security: Tinubu, AFAN leader speak on way forward

President Bola Ahmed Tinubu of Nigeria has unveiled plans to ameliorate the pains of Nigerians with food availability through immediate and short term actions just as the leader of All Farmers Association of Nigeria ( AFAN) Architect Kabir Ibrahim posited that Nigeria solution to food security must be looked from a bigger picture of productivity beyond Nigeria.

While President Tinubu spoke on the nation's live broadcast yesterday at 7pm, the farmers'president spoke in a press release made available including Food Farm News.

Tinubu who acknowledged the pains of Nigerians with food prices said the Government is ready to mitigate in short and immediate terms as grains would be released to households across the 36 states of the federation including FCT to checkmate hike, adding that thousands of fertilizer' tons with other inputs would be supplied to increase production.

Also he reiterated the promise to support more land cultivations with modern irrigation practices, and N200 billion coming out of the  legislative N500b approval.

According to President Tinubu " In the short and immediate terms, we will ensure staple foods are available and affordable. To this end, I have ordered the release of 200,000 metric tonnes of grains from strategic reserves to households across the 36 states and FCT to moderate prices. We are also providing 225,000 metric tonnes of fertilizer, seedlings and other inputs to farmers who are committed to our food security agenda"

"Our plan to support cultivation of 500,000 hectares of farmland and all-year-round farming practice remains on course. To be specific, N200 billion out of the N500 billion approved by the National Assembly will be disbursed as follows: 

" Our administration will invest N50 billion each to cultivate 150,000 hectares of rice and maize.

-N50 billion each will also be earmarked to cultivate 100,000 hectares of wheat and cassava.

"This expansive agricultural programme will be implemented targeting small-holder farmers and leveraging large-scale private sector players in the agric business with a strong performance record"

"It is in the light of this that I approved the Infrastructure Support Fund for the States. This new Infrastructure Fund will enable States to intervene and invest in critical areas and bring relief to many of the pain points as well as revamp our decaying healthcare and educational Infrastructure.

The fund will also bring improvements to rural access roads to ease evacuation of farm produce to markets"

However, the AFAN president, Kabir Ibrahim in his release stated that the quest for sustainable food security of our nation with 200,000,000 people goes beyond food palliatives, but rather called for upscaling of productivity with reinvigoration of the entire food system with decisive actions.

He noted that the position of Nigeria in Africa has necessitated the need for expanded food productivity that would accommodate export to other neighbouring countries within the continent because of their dependency on Nigeria.

Ibrahim further advocated for the regular training of farmers with best agricultural practices of climate change consideration with the use of modern day farming mechanization, stressing that comparative ecology food production must be well thought out as well.