Nigeria reports boost in food production

In a speech before African Union heads of states at the High Level Meeting to end hunger in Africa (June 30-July 1, in Addis Ababa), Nigeria’s Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development, Dr Akinwunmi Adesina reported that the Nigerian government received an additional $3.7 billion in terms of gross benefits to the economy, following a 45% increase in domestic food supply last year.  

Farmers made a net income benefit of $1.1 billion from the additional 9 million metric tonnes of food produced during the 2012 farming season, reported the National Mirror. The achievement is a result of an initiative launched in 2011, the Agricultural Transformation Agenda, which aims to produce an additional 20 million MT of food at the end of 2015 farming season.

“Nigeria’s Agricultural Transformation Agenda of making an additional 20 million tonnes of food for our domestic food supply is built on the CAADP process. “This has added a total of 3.7 billion dollars in terms of gross economic benefits to the domestic economy. Farmers gained net income benefits of 1.1 billion dollars,” said Dr Adesina.

Nigeria continues to improve food production through further investments in agriculture to help fight hunger. In June 2013, the government received an award certificate from the FAO for its efforts to reduce the number of Nigerians affected by hunger and malnutrition.  (Photo courtesy of www.rice-africa.org)