The Minister of Agriculture and Food Security, Senator Abubakar Kyari, has charged the Chairmen of the Boards of Agricultural Research Institutes and Colleges to work with their respective agencies and colleges to develop climate-smart seeds to help boost food security.
While hosting the board chairmen of the research institutes and colleges of agriculture, the minister acknowledged that Nigeria is facing food security challenges and urged them to intensify efforts to address the situation by leveraging research.
“I have every confidence in your ability to deliver. Some of you are in research institutes, and some are in colleges of agriculture.
“But what we have seen recently is a deterioration in research, especially in the development of quality seeds and sound agronomic practices.
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“And we believe that with your leadership, you will bring the required discipline and expertise to ensure that research benefits our country.
“We are heavily challenged today in terms of food security. Climate change, for example, is a natural phenomenon that is here to stay. We can’t do much to stop it, but we can adapt.
“One way to adapt is to develop quality seed varieties, especially from some of the institutes you will be heading seeds that are drought-resistant, heat-resistant, high-yielding, and with short gestation periods—because arable land is shrinking.
“By this, I mean the availability of farmland is reducing while the population continues to grow,” he noted.
“So, I believe that under your leadership, we will achieve much more. Our doors are open.
“If there are any issues you need clarification on or advice you seek, you can see we have assembled many of our top-notch directors here, and they will listen to you when you have something to share.”
Senator Kyari, however, maintained that Nigeria is on the right path to addressing food insecurity, with plans to balance consumer and farmer welfare concerning food prices.
“We’re surely on the path to success. We are not yet where we want to be, but we are moving in that direction.
“What we have achieved in less than two years has never been achieved before, and I believe we are all aware—as people from communities across the federation—of the recent changes in food prices.
“Our goal is to stabilize prices and ensure the welfare of both consumers and farmers,” he stated.
The minister also tasked the board chairmen with ensuring that their various research institutes and colleges of agriculture avoid introducing non-agricultural items during the budgeting process and implementation.
“My other advice is that we must be careful with our budgeting process and implementation.
“I had the opportunity to speak with the heads of the agencies, research institutes, and colleges just before the budget defense period, where I cautioned them against including non-agricultural provisions in the budget.
“Please draw our attention to any of these questionable items in the budget. We’ve had instances that were even embarrassing—cases where civil society groups wrote damaging reports about some of our research institutes,” he added.
On his part, the leader of the board chairmen and Chairman of the Cross River State All Progressives Congress (APC), Alphonsus Ogar Eba, thanked President Bola Tinubu for giving them the opportunity to serve.
He also assured the president and the minister that they would, in their individual capacities as board chairmen, work to deliver the Renewed Hope transformative agenda in their respective research institutes and colleges of agriculture.
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