The Minister of Agriculture and food security, Senator Abubakar Kyari, has disclosed plans to use idle acres of land in tertiary institutions for farming as part of measures to boost food supply.
Kyari disclosed this at the Seventh-Day Adventist Church, Eastern Nigeria Union Conference Centenary Public Lecture and Food Summit with the theme ‘Ending Food Shortage in Nigeria, How to Apply The Surplus Concept’, in Port Harcourt on Friday, October 27.
At the event, Kyari was represented by the ministry’s Deputy Director, Nutrition and Food Safety, Nuhu Kilishi, who noted that letters had already been sent to the institutions, seeking their consent.
He disclosed that already, some of the tertiary institutions have begun responding favourably, saying the move would be a sure step to revive farming in schools.
Kyari stated, “We want to revive farming in the schools and institutions. We have written to the universities and schools for them to let us utilise hectares of their land that are unused.
“They have started responding, by the time we have a reasonable level of compliance, there is going to be a programme that would ensure that those empty lands are being used for cultivation and this will add to food availability.
“Farmers need to use irrigation pumps, so the ministry is intending to buy solar pumps for farmers to cut costs for them. Instead of using petrol they would be using solar pumps.
“The Minister has rolled out immediate, short term, medium and long term plans that would address food shortage in Nigeria.
“I will advise farmers that after producing don’t stop at production, go into processing, value addition because it pays more to do that,” he sais.
Earlier, the keynote speaker at the event, a Professor of Plant Breeding and Genetics at the Babcock University, Cyril Nwamguruka, identified selfishness as the bane of food shortage in the country.
Nwamguruka called on President Bola Tinubu to appoint only selfless and committed individuals to handle public offices.
