FG wants farmers to engage in dry-season farming

• •As Reps express concerns about food security 

By Christiana Ekpa 

The Federal Government, Thursday called on farmers and other stakeholders in agriculture to embrace dry-season farming as a means of addressing the impending food shortage in the country as a result of the devastating effects of flooding.

The minister of agriculture and rural development, Dr. Muhammad Abubakar disclosed this Thursday at a budget defence with the House of Representatives committee on agricultural colleges, research institutes and universities in Abuja.

He said the federal government was advising farmers to engage in intensive dry season farming as a way out of the shortage and high cost of foodstuff occasioned by inflation and floods.

“That’s why we are calling for intensive dry season farming to address food shortages”, he stated.

The minister noted that funding has been a major problem and every ministry was demanding for an increase in their budget adding that the agriculture ministry cannot be left out of the request for additional funds.

Earlier in his welcome remarks, the chairman of the House committee on agricultural colleges, research institutes and universities, Hon. Munir Babba Danagundi said the food shortage in the country was worsened by flood and other climatic conditions.

He said “The food security situation in Nigeria is compounded by climate-induced situations such as flood, drought, extreme temperatures, pests, diseases, etc that affect agricultural production and productivity.

“Research, which is supposed to be at the forefront of climate adaptations and mitigation measures must not be allowed to suffer. We must all jointly work hard to achieve the sustainable development goal of access to affordable food by all Nigerians”. 

He said records available to the committee indicated that budget releases in 2021 and 2022 have been very impressive and most of the institutions satisfactorily utilised the funds allocated and released by the government.

“I congratulate all of you for this achievement despite some challenges. The committee is ever ready to assist you to surmount any challenge that may arise in the implementation of the budget. We have intervened to solve problems associated with budget implementation in some agencies during our oversight visits to the agencies some weeks ago’, he stated.

According to him, the committee was generally impressed with the performance of the budget and “had drawn the attention of some CEOs where some inadequacies and flaws associated with procurement were observed”, stressing that the committee met with officials of the ministry during budget preparation to set priority areas in order to ensure effective resource utilisation in the 2022 budget.

He informed that the former arrangements where many research institutes had less than 10% of their capital projects allocated to research were reversed. The chairman noted that the committee observed the production of large quantities of early-generation seed of improved crop varieties, livestock species and fish fingerlings, which were procured by the ministry and the seed companies for the production of certified seed.

“For the agricultural colleges and universities, the committee observed improvements on procurement of teaching, learning and research infrastructures such as the provision of classrooms, laboratories, offices for staff, studios, workshop equipment, modern agricultural tools, processing and storage equipment, etc”.

The chairman, however, queried the minister over the strike action embarked upon by some unions in the research institutes, of which the committee was not informed. “The attention of the committee was drawn to the protracted strike action by the three unions of the research institutes namely Academic Staff Union of Research Institutes, (ASURI), Senior Staff Association (SSA) and Non-Academic Staff Union (NASU) which started since October 2021.

“It means the staff have been on strike for 13 months and nobody has reported to the committee. The Committee is curious to know how the affected agencies have been able to implement the budget alongside the strike.

“It is quite unfortunate that while the government is struggling to fully fund the budget including payment of salaries and allowances, staff are not appreciating the good gesture of the government. 

“I will like to appeal to the honourable minister of agriculture and rural development to urgently engage the unions through relevant authorities to address their grievances and achieve industrial harmony at the research institutes”, he lamented.