National Council meeting on agriculture opens in Kano

Meeting of the National Council on Agriculture has opened in the commercial city of Kano, with a call by the Federal Government on all stakeholders in the agric sector to boost investment in irrigation farming.

Government says it is only through the active boosting of investment in both the rain-feed farming and irrigation development that the nation can meet the rising demand for food.

Audu Ogbe, minister of agriculture, made this call on Tuesday, while paying a courtesy visit on Kano State governor, Abdullahi Umar Ganduje, as part of the ongoing meeting holding in Kano.

According to Ogbe, the need to develop the irrigation component of agriculture becomes imperative as the nation’s population is expected to grow to over 210 million targets in 25 years time.

To him, as part of the agricultural development objective of the present administration, a framework is being put in place to boost irrigation farming across the country.

“The future of Nigeria would be in jeopardy without the resolve of all players in the sector to boost investment in agriculture, and we thank God that we are now being forced to think outside the box in our area of development.

“Today, we are going to inspect some farms involved in milk production. Before now we have been spending over $1.3 billion in importing milk products from the UK and other European countries, while we have enough capacity to be self sufficient in the sub-sector.

“Now that we are broke, we have come to realise the fact that agriculture and agriculture alone is the main thing,” he said.

In his responses, Governor Ganduje thanked the minister for choosing the state to host the Council meeting, saying his administration was ready to partner the Federal Government in the development of agriculture in the country.

Meanwhile, as part of the Council’s meeting, which is in its technical session, the minister visited some private and public owned agricultural establishments in the state.

Some of the places visited include the ‘Artificial Insemination Centre in Kadawa,’ ‘Dangote Tomato Factory, also in Kadawa,’ and a private rice mill ‘Uzma Rice,’ and ‘Fadama 3 Gafan.’

Adeola Ajakaiye