Agriculture and Food Security Minister Abubakar Kyari has said Nigeria needs about 312,000 metric tonnes of seeds to achieve food security, food sufficiency and global security this year.
Kyari spoke in Abuja during a high-level stakeholders’ forum on Seed System Development, organised by Feed-the Future Nigeria Integrated Agriculture Activity.
The theme of the event is “Enhancing Seed Systems Development for Improved Food Security: A Paradigm of USAID Interventions in Northeast Nigeria”.
Represented by the Director of the National Food and Strategic Reserve, Dr Haruna Suleiman, the minister said the ministry had outlined a series of critical pathways to solve the nation’s food security challenges.
He said: “Major crops that are most concerned are rice, maize, wheat, sorghum, and cowpea in 2024. We require about 312,000 metric tonnes of seeds to enable us to achieve the required metric tonnes”.
Kyari said the Nigerian seeds development required partnership and synergy among all key stakeholders to facilitate a model of collaboration built on knowledge sharing, skills exchange, expertise, competitiveness, and mutual benefit.
