Abuja — The Minister of Agriculture and Water Resources,Dr Abba Sayyadi Ruma, has said that government was determined to identify problems and proffer solutions for a strong agricultural sector.

The minister, who spoke in Abuja on Saturday, emphasised the need for a reliable agricultural input service sub-sector."It remains a major catalyst for the attainment of food security," he said.

According to him, government remains committed to boosting food security through improved agricultural input service delivery.

Ruma said the new strategy to boost food production include the one-stop agricultural input shops and the commodity development centres.

Others include market and credit infrastructure which would support a viable agricultural business to be sustained by agricultural input service providers.

He said the aim was to achieve rapid sustainable agricultural growth and comprehensive change across the agricultural system. "Smallhold farmers produce most of the food, but with minimal resources and inadequate government support in the past.

"This result in low yields, over-reliance on food imports, food aid, and entrenched poverty," he said..

Ruma explained that government's intervention was imperative to ensure quality control, effective advocacy and mass mobilisation for increased access, availability and affordability. NAN