In furtherance to the Agricultural Transformation Agenda, (ATA), the federal government at the weekend, had renewed its partnership with the State of Israel as it established Nigeria-Israel Agribusiness Partnership on Agriculture.
This partnership agreement was reached after the minister of agriculture and rural development, Dr. Akinwumi Adesina and his Israeli counterpart, Mr. Yain Shamir, signed a joint declaration for bilateral cooperation on agriculture.
Adesina outlined key areas he demanded partnership from the Israeli government in order to boost agribusiness in the country. They include assistance in aquaculture, research and training, irrigation, beef, diary, poultry, fishery, mechanisation, and others.
“The Israel-Nigeria Project sited at Lapai-Gwari in Niger state involves modern irrigation farming by State of Israel for the benefit of the host community to commemorate its 63rd independence anniversary.
“Today Nigeria had become a multi-dollar exporting country to Israel. Over 50 Israeli companies are in Nigeria doing business in all the sectors, including agribusiness. It is particularly important in irrigation, aquaculture, horticulture, research, science and technology, fisheries, livestock production.
“On irrigation, Israel is the world leader. We are informed that 65% of Israel’s vegetable comes from the desert in a region in the south of the country. You have been able to ring water all the way from the Sea of Galilee up to the desert to feed the crops of the farmer.
“On fisheries, we want to partner with you, because we spend over N125 billion on fish importation annually and I told those in the industry that it was unacceptable and we cannot continue like that. We want to work closely with you to develop the fisheries sector. And to move from mono-fish farming of catfish to other fishes like tilapia since it is a big one in Israel.
“On the area of research and development we want a strategic partnership that will help develop the capacity of my staff. So we want your government to support my staff in research and development to do agribusinesses, and to attend the Galileo Training Centre in Israel, which is known all over the world for training agribusiness experts.
“The Israeli-Nigeria alliance is not just on government level but also at the private sector level, therefore we will develop an Israeli-Nigerian Agribusiness Partnership that will foster increased investments and financing through our private sector companies.
However, the minister of agriculture and head of Israeli delegation, Mr. Yain Shamir, assured the government of Nigeria of its resolve to support the country’s agricultural development as it was ready to offer free training to staff of the ministry of agriculture in strategic areas contained in both country’s partnership agreement on agriculture.
He also urged the Nigerian agriculture sector to embark more on research and modern technology to rapidly transform the sector as his country did in transforming the desert they found themselves.
“We have decided to share this knowledge and experience with other countries of the world. We are ready to do what we can and not only in agricultural sector, as we are ready to assist President Goodluck Jonathan to actualise the Agricultural Transformation Agenda in the agricultural sector,” Shamir stated.
