Food Security: Fed govt moves to fast-track wheat, livestock production, sets up technical committee

The Federal Government has constituted a high-level technical committee to accelerate wheat and other staple crop production, expand dry-season farming, and strengthen livestock development nationwide as part of renewed efforts to tackle food insecurity.

The committee, comprising representatives of key ministries, departments, agencies, and development institutions, is mandated to develop an implementation blueprint for strategic agricultural interventions to increase food production and address challenges confronting farmers.

Vice President Kashim Shettima inaugurated the committee on Tuesday during a high-level meeting on agricultural sector performance and strategic interventions at the Presidential Villa, Abuja.

The meeting followed an earlier engagement President Bola Ahmed Tinubu convened last week with stakeholders from the agricultural sector and other critical areas of the economy, during which the President directed that stakeholders identify and address existing challenges affecting agricultural productivity.

According to a statement issued by the Senior Special Assistant to the President on Media and Communications, Office of the Vice President, Stanley Nkwocha, Shettima charged members of the newly constituted committee to harmonise ideas and produce a comprehensive blueprint for implementing the Federal Government’s strategic agricultural interventions.

The committee is specifically expected to accelerate livestock development, wheat cultivation and other staple crop production, while identifying practical measures to improve agricultural productivity and strengthen food security nationwide.

The Vice President emphasised the need for effective collaboration among relevant government institutions to ensure that proposed interventions translate into measurable improvements in agricultural output.

After the meeting, the Minister of Agriculture and Food Security, Senator Abubakar Kyari, said the discussions focused on addressing critical challenges facing farmers and identifying opportunities to leverage existing resources to expand wheat production and dry-season farming.

He explained that President Tinubu has consistently advocated all-year-round agricultural production to increase food availability and reduce seasonal disruptions to the country’s food supply.

According to Kyari, the latest initiative seeks to strengthen coordination among federal institutions, state governments and local government authorities to ensure effective deployment of agricultural resources and interventions.

The minister said the President tasked the Vice President, during last week’s meeting, with further consultations to identify obstacles hindering agricultural development and propose workable solutions.

He said the technical committee would serve as a coordinating platform for relevant ministries, departments and agencies to develop practical recommendations for implementation

“It is a technical committee with members from the various MDAs to sit and coordinate on behalf of all, and come up with its resolutions for execution.

“The report of the technical committee will have to be subjected to another committee before presenting to His Excellency, the Vice President and then subsequently to Mr. President”, Kyari explained.

The committee comprises representatives of the Federal Ministries of Agriculture and Food Security; Water Resources and Sanitation; Livestock Development; and the Ministry of Finance Incorporated (MOFI).

Also represented are the Office of the Special Adviser and Coordinator, Presidential Livestock Reform; the Office of the Senior Special Assistant to the President on Agribusiness and Productivity Enforcement; the Office of the Senior Special Assistant to the President on Food Security; and the Office of the Senior Special Assistant to the President on Livestock Development.

Other members include the chief executives of the Bank of Industry, Bank of Agriculture, National Agricultural Land Development Authority, National Agricultural Seeds Council, National Agricultural Development Fund and National Centre for Agricultural Mechanisation.

The National Sugar Council of Nigeria, Nigeria Commodities Exchange and National Agency for Science and Engineering Infrastructure are also represented on the committee.

The Technical Adviser to the Vice President on Agriculture and Head of the Presidential Food Systems Coordinating Unit, Ms Marion Moon, will coordinate the committee.

Earlier, Moon had identified poor coordination among the three tiers of government as a major obstacle to effective agricultural planning and implementation.

She observed that significant gaps in communication and information-sharing between federal, state and local governments had made it difficult to obtain a comprehensive picture of agricultural activities and interventions at the subnational level.

According to her, addressing these gaps is essential to ensuring that federal agricultural policies and programmes complement existing initiatives being implemented by state and local governments.

Moon stressed that agricultural development remained a shared responsibility among all tiers of government, making effective collaboration indispensable to achieving national food security objectives.

“So, as we think about what we’re doing – what we should prioritise – it is very important to ensure that we are in harmony and synergy with what is happening at the state level”, she stated.

The latest initiative is expected to provide a coordinated framework for implementing agricultural interventions, particularly in wheat production, dry-season cultivation and livestock development, while strengthening cooperation among federal institutions and subnational governments.

The committee will further review its recommendations before submitting them to Vice President Shettima and, subsequently, President Tinubu for consideration.

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