Funding a great challenge to Nigerian agriculture —Minister

THE Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development Dr Muhammad Abubakar has said that funding has remained a great challenge to the development of agriculture in the country.

Abubakar who stated this during a press conference to mark this year’s World Food Day celebration in Abuja, said despite the challenge, the President Muhammadu Buhari’s administration has invested so much in agriculture and provided funding across various food and agriculture subsectors.

Dr Abubakar the federal government’s plan is to continue to engage with the states and local governments across the country to be committed to the Moputo/Malabo Declaration to allocate 10 percent of their budgetary funds to agriculture.

“It is on record that the Buhari administration has invested so much in agriculture and provided funding across various food and agriculture subsectors.

“However, funding still remains a big challenge. Therefore, our plan is to continue to engage with the states and local governments across the country to be committed to the Moputo/Malabo Declaration, to allocate 10 percent of their budgetary funds to agriculture”, he said.

He however said the action will increase access to funding at the grassroots level and would therefore increase food production.

The Minister said other challenges includes but not limited to weak linkages between the agricultural and the industrial sector, lack of consistent agriculture data from the three tiers of government, ineffective capacity for quality control, standard and certification for production and marketing among others.

While noting that one of the greatest threats to food security in Nigeria is food wastage from farms, he said the federal government has launched the ‘Zero Reject’ programme aimed at improving the quality of the country’s domestic production to both local and international markets standard.

He assured that the Zero Reject production would guarantee the nation’s increased supply of food to the people and revenue from export activities.

“One of our greatest threats to food security in Nigeria is food wastage from farm to table.

“To address this menace we have launched the ‘Zero Reject’ programme aimed at improving the quality of our domestic production to both local and international markets standard”, he said.