The Federal Government has reiterates its regards for smallholder farmers in the country, saying Nigerians are being fed by Smallholder farmers without whom the nation would have run into food crises.
A statement signed by the Chief Information Officer in the ministry, Mr Ezeaja Ikemefuna, reveals that the Minister stated this while flagging off the distribution of free inputs to farmers in Borno State recently.
Shehuri said this set of farmers operate on little but very significant plots of land for which they toiled all year round producing basic food and cash crops and contribute over 80% to our national food supply.
The Minister stated that the Federal Government would continue to support Smallholder farmers as well as the Physically Challenged farmers in Borno state to boost Agricultural production in the state and Nigeria in general.
He added that the Smallholder farmers would play a major role in ensuring food security and towards averting food scarcity in the 2021 dry season farming which is on-going.
He stated that ” President Muhammadu Buhari has directed that Smallholder farmers must be supported with seeds, Agro chemicals and small Agro equipment to rekindle their hope and accelerate their recovery process from the economic loss suffered during the period of Pandemic”.
He pointed out that “Extension Services has been rejigged to serve farmers so that there is seamless and unbroken food supply chain across the country. These efforts had since paid off as our food requirement is mostly produced locally with little or no consideration for food imports since COVID-19 set in.”
