The Federal Government says on Thursday that efforts are on to help expose farmers nationwide, to techniques capable of reducing high rate of wastages on food harvests.
The Permanent Secretary, Federal Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development, Dr. Earnest Umacki, made this known in Ado-Ekiti, Ekiti State capital, at the opening of a workshop on the “Use of Sack Bags For All Season Yam Production”.
According to him, government’s worries had become necessary as some people are now living in a most unusual times, in which all farmers should do their best in these challenging times.
Represented by the Desk Officer, in charge of Yam Value Chain in the Ministry, Dr. Perpetual Iyere, the Permanent Secretary said one of the best available innovations, in the midst of security crisis and farmers/headers clash, was the use of sack bags, in the production of yam.
” This innovation makes it possible for the production of yam, all year round, and use of small spaces, in and around our homes.
” This is the time for a paradigm shift and refocus on our way if farming. We must remember that that the kind of action that we take now, will go a long way to determining the food security of the Nigerian citizens, eradicating poverty hunger and reducing poverty.
” Thus, using the sack bag for production of yam could be one of the strategies towards achieving Sustainable Development Goal (SDG), No-2 target, of reducing to half, the proportion of undernourished people in the world by the tear 2030
” Scaling up of industrial yam farming in cities and homes is expected from the sack bag production”, he said.
The Permanent Secretary assured that the Federal Government of today was committed to implementing the framework of the National Economic Sustainability Plan, and the and the Nigerian Agricultural Technology and Innovation Plan, as a strategy for for food resilience and economic development.
Earlier in a welcome address, the Ekiti Ministry of Agriculture and Food Security Permanent Secretary, Mr Odesanmi Olugbenga, said government in the Ekiti had always accorded priority attention to issues relating to Agriculture, so as to return it to it’s pride of place
