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AUDA-NEPAD assures of support to boost rural farmers’ productivity

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THE African Union Development Agency-New Partnership for African Development (AUDA-NEPAD) has said it is concerned with ensuring food security towards building long-term resilience for sustainable economic growth and development.

It noted that the agency would continue to facilitate capacity building activities to enhance the productive capacities of rural farmers.

The National Coordinator/CEO of AUDA-NEPAD/African Peer Review Mechanism, Princess Gloria Akobundu, stated this in Abuja at the closing ceremony of the National Workshop on “Applications of Juncao Technology and its contributions to the achievement of sustainable agriculture and the Sustainable Development Goals in Nigeria.”

She stated that the agency would work with partners to support the capacity needs of smallholder farmers in order for them to reap the full benefits of the technology of growing mushrooms.

Akobundu added that the unveiled Chinese technology would create direct and indirect jobs, tackle and boost food production.

She said, “This is the beginning of our concerted efforts to work together with our partners to support the capacity needs of our smallholder farmers in order for them to reap the full benefits of this wonderful technology of growing mushrooms.

“Let me assure that my office will continue to facilitate capacity building activities to enhance the productive capacities of our rural farmers.”

Also speaking, the Chief, National Strategies and Capacity Building Branch Division for Sustainable Development Goals, Department of Economic and Social Affairs, Amson Sibanda, noted that the Juncao technology can also strongly support the country’s plans in agriculture, value addition, to the benefit of key-value chains and linkages, among other actions.

Sibanda stated that the Juncao technology is among other cutting-edge applications of technology contributing to improving food systems and the achievement of Sustainable Development Goals.

He said, “Agriculture represents nearly $8 trillion industry globally, according to the World Bank, so how can Nigeria harness and leverage the application of advanced technology such as Juncao to benefit from this $8 trillion industry in addition to contributing to protecting the planet, enhancing food and nutrition security?

“The UN 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development calls for transformative initiatives under the means of implementation targets under Goal 17, ‘Strengthen the means of implementation and revitalise the Global Partnership for Sustainable Development.’

“Juncao technology showcases a pathway whereby such initiatives can catalyse change, transform lives and livelihoods, and create opportunities for a better future, leaving no one behind, especially when they are combined with continental initiatives such as the one on ‘Strengthening of smallholder farmers’ capabilities towards productive restoration amid COVID-19 in Nigeria.’

“To build the capacities of local researchers, we will be offering small competitive research grants to one or two agricultural universities interested in undertaking research on domesticating the Juncao technology in Nigeria.”

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The PDP spokesman recalled how the opposition party had on various occasions alerted that the APC government had ceded sovereignty over a large portion of our country to terrorists, “many of whom were imported into our country by the APC.”

He further stated: “From the video, in a brazen manner, terrorists as non-state actors boldly showed their faces, boasting, admitting and confirming their participation in the Kuje Prison break, some of whom were former prison inmates who were either jailed or awaiting trial for their previous terrorism act against our country.

“Nigerians can equally recall the confession by the Governor of Kaduna State, Mallam Nasir el-Rufai that the APC government knows the plans and whereabouts of the terrorists but failed to act.

According to Ologunagba, about 18,000 Nigerians have been killed by terrorists between 2020 and 2022 “as the criminals continue to be emboldened by the failures and obvious complicity of the APC and to which the PDP had always drawn attention.”

“This is not politics; this is about humanity and leadership, which leadership sadly and unfortunately is missing in our country at this time,” he said.

The PDP added that it is appalled by “the lame response by the apparently helpless, clueless and deflated Buhari Presidency, wherein it told an agonizing nation that President Buhari “has done all and even more than what was expected of him as Commander in Chief by way of morale, material and equipment support to the military…”

“This is a direct admission of incapacity and failure by the Buhari Presidency and the APC. At such a time, in other climes, the President directly leads the charge and takes drastic measures to rescue and protect his citizens.

“In time of adversity, the President transmutes into Consoler-in-Chief to give hope and succour to the citizens. Painfully, Nigeria does not have a President who cares and can stand as Consoler-in-Chief to the citizens.

“It has now become very imperative for Nigerians to take note and realize that the only solution to this unfortunate situation is to hold the APC government accountable. We must come together as a people, irrespective of our political, ethnic and religious affiliations to resist the fascist-leaning tendencies of the APC administration.

Ologunagba called for an urgent meeting of the National Council of State to advise on the way to go over the nation’s worsening insecurity.

“Our nation must not fall. The resilient Nigerian spirit and ‘can-do- attitude’ must be rekindled by all to prevail on the President to immediately and without further delay, accede to the demand by the PDP and other well-meaning Nigerians to convene a special session of the National Council of State to find a lasting solution since the President has, in his own admission, come to his wit’s end,” the PDP spokesman declared.

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