Nigeria needs 312,000 metric tons of seed to achieve food security – FG

For Nigeria to achieve food security, food sufficiency and global security in 2024, about 312,000 metric tons of seed are needed, the federal government has said.

This is just as the United States said it has intervened in the food scarcity ravaging the country, saying plans are underway to make available $3m worth of food for people in the northeastern region.

The Minister of Agriculture and Food Security, Sen. Abubakar Kyari, disclosed this in Abuja on Tuesday during a High-Level Stakeholders’ Forum on Seed System Development, organised by Feed-the-Future Nigeria Integrated Agriculture Activity.

The minister, who was represented by the Director, National Food and Strategic Reserve, Dr Haruna Suleiman, said the ministry had already outlined a series of critical pathways to solve the food security challenges in Nigeria.

In an interview with journalists, the Chief of Party/Principal Specialist at IITA, Mr Prakash Silwal, said USAID had in the last five years funded IITA and their partners to work in the North East, to address food insecurity.