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Nigeria: Country Spends $3 Billion On Rice, Wheat, Fish Importation Yearly
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This Day (Lagos)
25 July 2008
Posted to the web 25 July 2008
Nosike Ogbuenyi
Lagos
Nigeria spends a staggering $3billion annually due to heavy importation of three major staples from abroad.
Minister of Agriculture and Water Resources, Dr. Abba Sayyadi Ruma, who revealed this yesterday in Lagos said the Federal Government spends the amount yearly on importation of rice, fish and wheat.
The Minister made the disclosure during the opening of the National Council on Water Resources (NCWR) and the launching of International Year of Sanitation for Nigeria held in Lagos.
While expressing concern on the colossal expenditure, he stated that the country cannot afford to continue to spend that much on importation of food while it has the potential to be self sustaining in those areas. He then called on the technical committee of the NCWR to come out with good initiatives that would save the country from food crisis.
According to Ruma, the country needs a new policy in the agricultural sector. He said that was why it has become necessary for the council to come up with a formula that would save the country from the lingering food scarcity. He said Nigeria has the capacity to produce five million metric tonnes of fish but could only achieve a dismal 500 metric tonnes annually.
Commenting on the merging of the Federal Ministries of Agriculture and Water Resources, he hailed the move was one of the Federal Government's initiatives to address food crisis in the country adding that in the meantime two agencies had been created to facilitate this.
He listed the agencies as the Integrated Water Management Agency and the Gurara Water Management Agency which will be involved in the creation of dams, provision of irrigation facilities, drainages so that water can be improved upon.
Ruma stated that the agencies would provide ground facilities that could be used for water supply or hydro-power generation for agricultural purposes.
"The essence is fundamental because of the emerging challenge of planet change on water utilisation. We have to make concerted effort to provide irrigation infrastructural facilities so that we can have food production round the year. This will enable us to exploit to the fullest the potential of agricultural production,"the minister said.
He added that President Umaru Yar'Adua is committed to food security in the country stressing that this has resulted in his ensuring full participation of the private sector in agriculture.
The Minister also disclosed that the Federal Government had allocated more funds to agriculture in the 2008 budget adding that the ministry got seven per cent instead of the four per cent it gets before.
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Lagos State Governor, Mr. Babatunde Fashola in his speech at the conference charged the council to formulate policies that would enable the government to provide potable pipe borne water for the citizenry. He disclosed that the State is set to generate an additional 30 million gallons of water daily from the 15 micro water works that are currently in various stages of completion all over the State.
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