The Permanent Secretary of Nigeria’s Ministry of Agriculture and Food Security has advocated for a strong partnership between the Ministry and the media in achieving food security, an objective in line with President Bola Tinubu’s Renewed Hope Agenda, which focuses on promoting agricultural development, improving food security, creating jobs, and enhancing the livelihoods of farmers.
Dr. Marcus Ogunbiyi also urged the media to support the Ministry’s efforts by educating farmers on various farming methods, farm inputs, and agricultural practices to boost productivity.
“The press has the power to change negative narratives. I encourage you to use this in sensitizing Nigerians to take a renewed interest in agriculture. Together, we can feed ourselves and develop our nation”, Dr. Ogunbiyi said at a one day workshop with Agriculture Correspondents recently in Abuja.
The workshop was themed “Building Partnership With the Media for Food Security”.“Through your constructive engagements with the Ministry, you will be in a unique position to educate farmers on methodologies, inputs availability, and how these can be accessed to improve their yield”, the permanent secretary stated.
Director of the Department of Information, Dr. Joel Oruche emphasized on the need for stronger collaboration, laying strong emphasis on the current administration’s focus on food security.
“Your duty is to continuously educate the public on the policies, programs, and activities of the Ministry that impact farmers, especially smallholder farmers who rely on your ability to inform them on methodologies, input availability, and application of techniques”, he said.
National Project Coordinator, National Agricultural Growth Scheme and Agro-Pocket, NAGS-AP, Ishaku Buba, highlighted the mandate of the project to include; increase in total food production to crash the continued rises in prices of agricultural commodities and for affordability purposes for the average Nigerian.
He pointed out the objectives of the project and achievements made so far to include; a total of 647,500 farmers registered across the 37 States including FCT on the NAGs-AP project platform since its commencement in 2023/2024 dry season out of which 628,406 farmers were supported with subsidized Agricultural Inputs packages, amongst others.
Chairman, Agriculture Correspondents of Nigeria, ACAN, Mr. Collins Nnebuife commended the management for their support and appealed to the Technical Directors to make themselves more accessible to clarify issues.
He also solicited for the media to be carried along in programmes outside Abuja and called for the possibility of holding the workshop quarterly to keep them abreast of the developments in the agriculture sector.
Highlight of the event was presentations delivered by Director, Extension Services Department, Director Rural Development, National Project Coordinator, NAGS -AP, and the representative of Director Mechanization. The event had in attendance agricultural correspondents from the print, electronic media, and online publishers.