FG reiterates stand on food security

The federal government has again reiterated its seriousness as ensuring food security and self sufficiency, with the award of national silos in the south east.
The minister of state for agriculture and rural development, Senator Heineken Lokpobiri, during a facility tour visit to the Bayelsa State Silo located at Igbogene and another at Okigwe in Imo state said the silos are still under construction are to be up scaled to meet timely target and usage.
Expressing governments determination to achieve this target, he said the construction work at the Igbogene Silo bin site had been stalled because of the challenge of the terrain which did not allow for continuity.

He therefore urged the Ministry of Works and Urban Development for a redesign of the entire architecture to include elevators that will hold up the silos which will in turn be able to carry any weight of grain that shall be stored in them, be it rice, wheat, sorghum or maize as the farmers produce.
He also said this need of redesign also affected the need for FEC approval and the increased cost of building.
Lokpobiri said that there was no way Nigeria can achieve food security and self-sufficiency if the silos are not functioning optimally to store excess produce and adequately arrest all post-harvest losses. “Storage is the key,” Lokpobiri confirmed.

He expressed concern and displeasure at the Igbogene silos site, a one year contract awarded since 2009 that has lingered for eight years after and still far from being completed.
On the one in Okigwe, he said the 20 silos bins are already in place, but that the contractors still had challenges.
Addressing the minister, the site manager, Continental Civil Engineering General Construction Company, Mr Luggard Enobokhare, said that the 20 silo grain project was made up of 5000 metric tons each, amounting to 100,000 metric tons. And though it was 70% completed and that it will serve Imo and Abia states when completed.

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