From Our Correspondent
The Federal Government has procured 58,500 metric tonnes of milled rice to dampen escalating food prices, according to Agriculture and Food Security Minister, Abubakar Kyari.
Kyari announced the procurement at the ministerial sectoral update, on Monday, in Abuja.
TheNewsZenith reports that the ministerial briefing was in commemoration of President Bola Tinubu’s first anniversary in office.
He said the presidential priority on the ‘Renewed Hope Agenda’ was to boost agriculture to achieve food security.
It was also to enhance infrastructure and transportation as enablers of growth.
“We inaugurated the dry season farming targeting cultivation of 118,657 hectares of wheat in 15 states to accelerate all-year-round farming.
“We supported 107,429 wheat farmers with inputs resulting in output of 474, 628 metric tonnes.
“Also, the government injected an estimated N309 billion into the economy,” the minister said.
He added that in response to the Presidential directive, the ministry released 42,000 metric tonnes of assorted food commodities from the Federal Government Strategic Food Reserve to the National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA) for distribution.
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“The ministry fortified crops with Vitamin A micro-nutrient to enrich the content and health value of food commodities.”
Kyari also said the ministry, in response to ginger blight disease in some parts of the country, introduced an initiative to tackle it.
Through the initiative, ginger farmers in Kaduna and Plateau states received N1.6 billion in support.
He said that the ministry also developed a Ginger Master Plan to facilitate self-sufficiency and promote export for foreign exchange earnings.
Kyari said the ministry conducted aerial control operations to mitigate transboundary pests.
He said the ministry carried out 1,030 flight hours control operations to prevent transboundary pests.
We carried out this control operation in frontline states like Adamawa, Bauchi, Gombe, Jigawa, Kano and Katsina.
Other benefiting states are Kebbi, Sokoto, Taraba, Yobe and Zamfara.
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