Commission Partners Stakeholders To Achieve Food Security
The New-National Hydro Electric Power Producing Areas Development Commission, N-HYPPADEC, says it will partner with the Federal Ministry of Agriculture and its member State Governments to boost agriculture through the use of modern technologies to achieve food security in the country.
The Managing Director of the commission, Alhaji Abubakar Sadiq-Yelwa, gave the assurance during a stakeholders meeting on sustainable agriculture food output and use of modern technologies with commissioners of agriculture of member states of the commission held in Minna on Wednesday.
Sadiq-Yelwa explained that the aim of the meeting was “to ensure feasible and sustainable means of making agricultural development in the areas where the commission operates.”
He said the commission has set up agriculture division in the Directorate of Community and Rural Development to improve the existing agricultural intervention programme.
He said that the commission would also design new innovative projects that would improve farming practices through the incorporation of modern technologies.
Sadiq-Yelwa added that the setting up of ‘farmers cooperatives’ would “enhance livestock production, develop commodity preservation facilities, and improve marketing facilities” in line with the medium-term strategy plan of the commission among others.
The Kogi Commissioner for Agriculture, Mr Timothy Ojuma, commending N-HYPPADEC for its intervention towards addressing the ecological challenges arising from the operations of hydro-electric, dams in the power producing areas of the country.
Ojuma underscored the need for the various state governments to prioritise the issue of agriculture and food security in the country.
Prof. Abdullahi Muhammad El-Okene, a resource person from ABU Zaria, spoke on the theme: “Sustainable agriculture, and food output and use of modern technologies,” stated that the use of mechanised farming would encourage youths to venture in to agriculture and become self reliant, and eventually boost the country’s economy.
In his paper presentation themed: “Climate Resilience Farming Models” to scale up intervention across Niger, one of the resource persons, Dr Haruna Ibrahim, described traditional farmers as the largest contributors to the supply of food stuff in the state.
According to him, they have been in the business from birth, and yet the result of their performance is not yielding any result due to the effect of climate change on agricultural activities in the state.
NAN/Shakirat Sadiq
