Food Security: Intensive Dry Season Farming Begins December, Says Minister 

Juliet Akoje in Abuja

The Minister of Agriculture, Mr. Muhammad Abubakar, yesterday revealed that the country was going into intensive dry-season farming beginning from December, to make sure there is continuous production of food in the country.

He made this known when he appeared before the House of Representatives Committee on Agriculture Colleges, Research Institutes and Universities to defend the 2023 budget.

Abubakar said: “There is slight elevation of commodities, and that is a world phenomenon. But we are doing everything on our own to see what we can do to bring down the prices.”

Earlier, the Chairman of the Committee, Hon. Munir Danagundi, said records available to the committee indicated that budget released in 2021 and 2022 had been very impressive.

Danagundi stated that most of the research institutes and universities had satisfactorily utilised the funds allocated and released by the government.

He said: “The committee was ever ready to assist the ministry to surmount any challenge that could arise in the implementation of the budget. We have intervened in solving problems associated with budget implementation in some agencies during our oversight visits to the agencies some weeks ago. The committee was generally impressed with the performance of the budget and has drawn the attention of some CEO where some inadequacies and flaws associated with procurement were observed.

“The attention of the committee was drawn to the protracted strike 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

“The committee was curious to know how the affected agencies had 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 members are not appreciating the good gesture of the government.”