As stakeholders in the agricultural sector continue day two activities of 2021 World Food Day, entrepreneurs and investors in Nigeria has been urged to invest in livestock, horticulture, fisheries and others to take Nigeria into self-sufficiency, food security, rich nutrition, and wealth creation along various value chains.
The Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development, Dr Mohammed Abubakar, stated this on Thursday at a ‘Roundtable Discussion on Agro-preneurs Success Stories and Mentorship Clinic in celebration of the 2021 World Food Day’ with theme, ‘Our Actions are our Future, Better production, Better Nutrition, a Better Environment and a Better Life’.
Abubakar said: “This year’s celebration marked the 41st edition of the World Food Day in Nigeria, as well as marking the 76th anniversary of the founding of the FAO and the 61st anniversary of Nigeria’s Independence as a Sovereign Nation.
“It is on record that Government economic diversification policy to agriculture, as alternative to oil and gas, and the investment of agro-preneurs projected Nigeria to become the largest producer of rice in Africa from 2019, the first in Cassava and Yam production globally. It also ranked the 14th in Maize production and 4th in Palm oil. Now we have notable domestic brands in rice that are competing with foreign international brands.
“The expectations we have in agriculture to take Nigeria to the promise land could only be achieved when our entrepreneurs take deliberate actions to invest in different value-chains.
“The potentials across crops, livestock, horticulture and fisheries sub-sectors are enormous. Therefore, it is the ingenuity of entrepreneurs like some of you here that would add value to our produce and guarantee the revenue generation potentials of the sector.
