Nigeria’s Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development, Chief Audu Ogbeh, said the nation’s target was to attain self-sufficiency in major agricultural produce – rice, sorghum, maize, millet, soya beans, wheat, among others three years from now.
He said, this would aid the nation’s resolve to wean itself from oil by achieving import substitution and stabilizing the economy as well as reducing the high import bill generated on food items,
The federal government would support the growth of the seed industry to produce high quality seeds which in turn would lead to the production of quality grains, he added.
‘’This is of integral importance for food security, job creation and prosperity of the economy. The production of these quality products will help reduce importation and the demand for huge foreign exchange required for food importation.’’
Meanwhile the Director General of National Agricultural Seeds Council (NASC), Dr Philip Ojo had earlier emphasized the need for a viable seed sector to boost the nation’s economy in order to attain the effort in diversification.
Dr Ojo disclosed that the council had been mandated to come up with strategies that would ensure the availability of good quality seeds to Nigerian farmers.
He said, ‘‘Our roles as seed industry stakeholders is very crucial because it is the fulcrum for the achievement of national seed requirement that currently stand at over 350,000 MT of which only about 123,000 MT is available as at 2015″.
“This means that we must now double our already doubled efforts if we are to achieve this target. It means this is a term for a quadruple effort”, the NASC Director General added.
