The overall Vision of the Intervention Programme is: “To ensure sustainable Access, Availability and Affordability of quality food to all Nigerians and to be a significant net provider of food to the global community”. It is argued that in order to be successful, the proposed approach must address every component of the entire agriculture value chain for Crops, Livestock and Fisheries. The approach must also be collaborative, with the intent of stimulating food production through private sector participation and market development. Responsible for this food insecurity are - in part - the global key trends such as high population growth especially in Asia (primarily China and India) and the pressure this exerts on the world’s food supply; Loss of agricultural land to residential and industrial development as well as to increasing desertification arising from global warming; The shifting balance between the use of food for human consumption and generation of biofuel to fuel ever-increasing global energy demands. Hence the entire agricultural system must be enhanced. As a corrolary of this the government has set the following objectives: Short-term: Significantly improving Nigeria’s agricultural production; Medium-term: Improved productivity, expanded large-scale production and improved storage/processing capacity as well as required market infrastructure to achieve food stability. Chapter 4 lays down provisions relating to crops. In order to ensure the highest impact from the Intervention Programme, 13 crops will be emphasised as being of strategic importance. To this end different incentive programmes will be drawn up targeted at small-scale, medium-scale and large-scale farmers required to drive the Nigerian agricultural production base. Moreover, a private sector-driven initiative will be commissioned to significantly enhance the irrigation system. It is hoped that the following four key inputs that once addressed, will significantly transform the production base of the sector: i) Seed development and distribution; ii) Soil analysis and agro-climatological services; iii) Fertilizer production and distribution; iv) Increased mechanization. Chapter 5 lays down provisions relating to livestock and fisheries. Most of the local livestock in Nigeria have poor genetic potentials and consequently have low meat and milk yield. The primary objective is to close the supply-demand gap in livestock production and related products. In the fisheries production – as in the livestock – the production method shall be changed from extensive to intensive. Other remedial strategies shall include i) Support of research and training in livestock production including on livestock statistics; ii) Extensive monitoring and control of livestock diseases and pests; iii) Provision of support and promotion of expansion of livestock value chain to incorporate modern production; iv) Transportation and processing; including the establishment of modern abattoirs and sanitary sales outlets across the states. Chapter 7 on biofuels makes a case for encouraging the production of biofuels and promotes the cultivation of non-food crops and utilize crop by-product for biofuel. Finance aspects are treated in Chapter 9. There are three main sources: Federal Government Funding; State and Local Government Funding and Commercial Bank Funding. Furthermore, this Chapter attends also to governance establishing that to ensure the effective execution of the Food Security Programme, the implementation responsibilities at the Federal, State and Local Government levels for all programmes and projects under the overall programme and accountabilities will be defined. Implementation monitoring mechanisms will be established through existing governance structures (including the Federal Executive Council, the Senate Committee on Agriculture) and a consultative forum made up of the members of the civil society, State Government representatives from the six geopolitical zones, Farmers’ Cooperatives. Independent assessors will be commissioned to assess and report on implementation progress on a periodic basis. The text consists of 10 Chapters as follows: Introduction (1); Situation Analysis (2); Objective and Policy Thrust (3); Crops (4); Livestock and Fish (5); Marketing (6); The Case For Biofuel and Carbon Credits (7); Research (8); Financing Structure (9); Action Plans (10).
نيجيريا · 2008-01-01