Food Security: Nigeria woos Saudi Arabia on food production, agric investment
ABUJA – IN a bid to boost economic growth, the Federal Government of Nigeria Thursday, wooed Saudi Arabia to partner on food production, tackle food insecurity and promote investment in the agricultural sector.
The Minister of Agriculture and Food Security, Senator Abubakar Kyari, said this during a press briefing and courtesy visit by the Minister of Environment, Water and Agriculture of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, Abdulrahman Alfaddly, and his delegation, at the Ministry’s headquarters in Abuja.
Kyari said the partnership will bring about mutual interest, potential avenues of cooperation and investment in irrigation, livestock, farmland development and value addition.
He said: “This visit was for us to partner. We also have something to benefit from them, they also have something to benefit from us.“They can come in and partner with us in terms of agricultural investments.We have a wide array of crops that they can invest in, so I believe we have never had it this good.“Government is there to facilitate the private sector to partner. It is not the government’s business to do business, but we are to facilitate.“Nigeria is open for business and the ease of doing business is here. So with the ‘Renewed Hope’ Agenda of Mr. President, this is in the right direction and I believe this is the right step, we will follow it up. We are not going to relent.”
In his remarks, the Minister of Environment, Water and Agriculture of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, Abdulrahman Alfaddly said the conversation is to strengthen the bond between the two countries, and to invest wisely in the agricultural sector to be able to produce higher quality on a lower cost in order to put an end to the global food crisis.He said, “We do realize all that food and food production, food availability and accessibility is becoming on the top of the agenda of all countries and we do believe that Nigeria has some competitive advantages and there is a need to invest wisely in the agriculture, food sector whereby we will be targeting the Nigerian market or exporting to the nearby countries.
We are also aware that the challenge facing what is called self-sufficiency is your ability to produce it at a lower cost compared to abortions from outside,because if we fail to do so, we will continue to abort and at a certain point in time we may not be able to abort, so we need to examine all the alternatives.
Meanwhile , the Chairman, Nigeria’s Governor Forum and Kwara State Governor, Abdulrahman Abdulrazaq, said, “It is a turning point in Nigeria today, that we need to improve our production, for domestic consumption and for export, this meeting is timely.“Our main aim, medium and long term, is to export; that is why this meeting is exciting to me, it is a partnership that will yield progress.”
Present at the occasion was the Minister of Environment, Balarabe Abbas Lawal, who was represented by the Permanent Secretary, Federal Ministry of Environment, Mahmud Kambari.
