The incoming Minister for Agriculture and Food Security, Abubakar Kyari, has been advised to collaborate with major stakeholders to grow the sector.
This was the view of some experts who spoke on Friday in separate interviews with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Lagos.
A Co-founder, Corporate Farmers and a youth agripreneur enthusiast, Akin Alabi, called on the incoming minister to collaborate with stakeholders in the sector in initiating policies and putting them into effect.
Mr Alabi said, “The growth of any nation is dependent on the policy, programmes, innovations, ideas and, most importantly, the ability to drive the agriculture sector to a success.
“This must align with the Federal Government’s Manifesto on food security.
“The incoming agriculture minister has huge responsibilities to ensure Nigeria’s attainment of food security and food systems programmes across the 36 states and the Federal Capital Territory.
“He will need to set up a solid team of industry professionals from all the value chain agro-enterprise across the country, including young Agripreneurs.
“The minister needs to have stakeholders’ engagement to fully understand the Agricultural Ecosystem beyond farming.
“It is important that the minister works together with stakeholders and be open to feedback, so we do not continue with the trial and error of past administration on food security.
“We need to remember that we have more than 200 million mouths to feed daily and this is dependent on smallholder farmers in rural communities across the nation.’’
On his part, The Chairman, Catfish Farmers Association of Nigeria (CAFAN), Sunday Onoja, said that both ministers of agriculture and marine/blue economy must put the frontiers of food sustainability in their tenures.
Mr Onoja said, “We congratulate both the new ministers of agriculture and marine/blue economy on their nominations.
“Ministries have been saddled with individual responsibilities to handle both the agriculture and aquaculture sectors separately.
“We are waiting on both ministries under their leadership to see their goodwill towards us as farmers and stakeholders in the sector.
“We expect the ministers to do better than what they met on ground and to carry stakeholders and farmers along in their policy making and decisions.
“We are the stakeholders and need to walk hand in hand with them to make their tenures successful.
“This will in turn make Nigeria food sufficient, create jobs and bring about a positive turnaround in the aquaculture and other agriculture sectors.
“We hope for more food sustainability, income generation and exportation of our processed produce through their policies.”
Similarly, the National Publicity Secretary, Poultry Association of Nigeria (PAN), Godwin Egbebe, called for collaboration with the various agriculture associations, so people at the grassroots could be reached easily.
Mr Egbebe said, “Presently, to ensure food security in Nigeria, we need agriculture technocrats at the helm of affairs. We expect the minister to know and understand the pains of farmers to advance the sector.
“We call on the new minister of agriculture to work in collaboration with the farmers and stakeholders in the implementation of policies.
“We want the minister to reach out to the various agriculture associations and local governments to drive policies to the grassroots.
“By collaborating with the associations and local governments, we will be able to trace the government palliatives given to the farmers.
“Through this, the ministry will be accountable and we will see the effects of its interventions in the sector.”
Recently President Bola Tinubu had released the portfolios for the 45 confirmed ministerial nominees, and Senator Abubakar Kyari, a Borno State-born politician, was named Minister for Agriculture and Food Security.
