The National Coordinator/ Chief Executive Officer African Union Development Agency-New Partnership for Africa’s Development, (AUDA-NEPAD) Nigeria, Princess Gloria Akobundu, has assured that food insufficiency, unhealthy feeding and farming are about to be reversed especially at the grassroots through its newly launched initiative to strengthen smallholder farmers capabilities in the six geopolitical zones of the country.
In a statement signed weekend in Abuja by her media assistant, Abolade Ogundimu, Akobundu stated this in her message to mark the 2021 edition of the World Food Day celebrated with the theme; “Our actions our future. Better production, better nutrition, better environment and better life” in line with the commitment to solicit global support against food insufficiency and ensure nutritious feeding.
The statement reiterated the agency’s commitment to President Muhammadu Buhari’s 9-point agenda on food sufficiency, adding that eliminating peasant farming in the country through technical and strategic infrastructural support will boost productivity of grassroots farmers and other stakeholders across the agricultural value chain.
The statement said Akobundu added that food sufficiency could also help reduce restiveness in the country as some security experts had linked poverty to insurgency, kidnapping and other vices.
She said: “Attaining sufficient and nutritious feeding status is a great achievement for any nation and President Buhari-led government is passionate about it.
“Most grassroot farmers put in a lot of efforts to harvest their minimal yields, but if right technology and skills are at their reach, farming will become more conducive and profitable.
“As the nation observes World Food Day, let us key into the farmers initiative that we are about to unveil and other various programmes, capable of promoting peace and prosperity in the country so that other great potentials of the nation can be harnessed,” she said.
Akobundu further added that pilot scheme of the project would commence in 22 states across the six geo-political states of the nation after the launching.
WFD: AUDA-NEPAD to strengthen smallholder farmers
