NIGERIA TO PROMOTE CLIMATE - SMART AGRICULTURE TO ADDRESS THE PROBLEM OF RURAL POVERTY


By Tony Ohaeri 
To tackle the cycle of rural poverty and other problems in agriculture associated with flooding and climate change, the Federal Government has resolved to promote a policy of climate smart agricultural programme.
The Permanent Secretary, Federal Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development, Arc. Sonny Echono disclosed this in a Press Briefing on the 2015 World Food Day Celebration held in Abuja on Friday October 16, 2015.
He said that the policy will among others include increased use of flood resistant and early maturing seed varieties; adoption and use of organic nutrients including fertiliser, provision and use of irrigation facilities and mechanization.
According to him, the policy will also pursue an expanded dry season farming which has significantly increased yield and translated into enhance incomed for Nigerian farmers.
Participants at the Sensitization Walk to commemorate the World Food Day displaying their farm produce.

Other current programmes of the Federal Government which are aimed at providing employment and reducing poverty in the rural areas the Permanent Secretary said are the Youth Empowerment Agricultural Programme (YEAP) which will give agricultural business employment and training to an initial 30,000 Nigerian youths and a total of 800,000 in the next four years and the National Agricultural Land Expansion Programme which is aimed at making land available for youths to engage in agriculture.
Under the programme, Arc. Echono said that the Federal Government will provide and clear the lands for the selected youths in different parts of the country. The government will also introduce the youth farmers to off takers (markets) who will not only provide the youths with farm imputs like seeds, fertiliser and other imputs but also buy the products of the youth farmers.
He further explained that youths will be selected from the communities where the lands are located.
He conveyed the feeling and sympathy of President Mohammadu Buhari to Nigerian farmers who were affected by the recent flooding across the agricultural belts and assured that the government will not only take mitigating measures but will put in place actions that will guarantee food security, social protection and a vibrant agricultural sector that will assist in breaking the cycle of rural poverty.
Earlier in a message read by the country representative of the Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) of the United Nations (UN), Dr. Louise Setshwalo, the Director General of the FAO Jose Graziano da Silva said that the world has a lot to celebrate because real progress in fighting global hunger and poverty in recent decades have been made.
He disclosed that 72 of the 129 countries have achieved the millennium development goal target of halving the prevalence of undernourishment in their populations by 2015.
The Director General however said that the ‘progress has been uneven’ because some 800 million people continue to suffer from chronic hunger. It will be recalled that Nigeria is among the countries that have development goal having surpassed the target in 2014.
The theme of this year world food day is social protection and agriculture: breaking the cycle of rural poverty.
Permanent Secretary, FMARD, Arc. Sonny Echono, flanked from the left by the FAO Representative in Nigeria, Dr. Lousie Setshwalo and from the right by Director, Planning and Policy Co-ordination (FMARD), Mrs. Rabi Idi – Adamu, during the Ministerial Press Briefing to commemorate the celebration of the 2015 World Food Day in Abuja.

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