Leadership (Abuja)
Grace Azubuike
9 November 2007
Abuja — This year's celebration of the World Food Day has been described as the most successful in recent times in terms of planning, execution and participation.
Chairman of the central planning committee of the 2007 World Food Day and the federal director of Agriculture, Dr Samuel Negedu, expressed this while speaking on the event in his office.
According to Negedu, the success achieved resulted from the commitment of both the ministry's management and the members of the organising committee to ensure that being the first in the life of this administration, the event was used to showcase the developments and achievements in the various sub-sectors of agriculture in the immediate past.
He commended the contributions and full participation of the country representatives and staff of the Food and Agriculture Organisation, and OXFAM GB. He expressed the belief that with such beneficial collaborations, agricultural development in Nigeria would continue to record immeasurable success.
Dr Negedu described the agricultural exhibition which brought together participants from almost all the states of the federation as a true testimony to the fact that all levels of government are now ready to forge a synergy in the planning and implementation of agricultural programmes, as issues of food production and accessibility have no political boundaries.
He commended the media for the wide publicity given to all the events of this year's celebration, saying as a major stakeholder in agricultural development, the media contributed in no small way in propagating the theme of the celebration which is, The Right to Food.
"Only the media has the capacity to draw the attention of governments to the rights of citizens to adequate, nutritionally- balanced and affordable food" he said.
Nigeria, he said, has given recognition to these rights as the federal government has adopted measures to address the food security needs of its populace through such programmes as the National Food Security programme which is being executed in collaboration with the Food and Agriculture Organisation.
The success of the first phase of the programme, according to him, has culminated in the commitment of about 48 million naira by the federal government for the implementation of the second phase.
He also said the gains of the celebration of World Food Day goes beyond the speeches and fanfare, but to the sensitisation and involvement of all strata of the society to their roles in the achievement of the Millenium Development Goals.
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