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Vice President Yemi Osibanjo, the Minister of Agriculture of and Rural Development, Dr Muhammad Abubakar and the United Kingdom High Commissioner to Nigeria, Catriona Laing are expected to lead the conversation at the Feed Nigeria Summit.
The Director General of Feed Nigeria Summit Secretariat, Richard-Mark Mbaram stated this on Monday while addressing journalists on the upcoming Feed Nigeria summit scheduled for 12th December this year.
He said the focus of the summit is how to recalibrate the Nigerian economy using the advantages the agricultural sector and agribusiness ecosystem provides.
Richard said having studied the global economic meltdown, it was realising that agriculture is the answer to this global economic crisis.
He said that the world is much more concerned about growing more food without having a negative impact on the environment which was part of the discussions at the concluded COP27.
The Feed Nigeria Summit Secretariat DG said however, the Summit will focus on the best way to deploy biotechnology which he said has contributed to the growth of agriculture in Africa, without leaving a mark on the environment.
“We now have a new agricultural policy in Nigeria and it focuses on the critical need of time, we just returned from Egypt for the COP27 and the core concern globally is how do we produce more food without leaving marks on the environment, and we are saying that in Nigeria the policy that we have in place now indicates that those who were behind it are visionaries, they knew that technology and innovation is at the core of providing the farmers, the stakeholders in the agricultural ecosystem the tool that they require to meet this phenomenal challenge of increased productivity.
“Biotechnology gives profound advantages to agricultural productivity. Biotechnology is needed to deploy appropriate measures to increase food production while also ensuring that the environment is safe.
“So, as the environment is pushing at the farmers, the farmers’ pushback becomes enhanced only if they have the backing of science, technology and innovation, and that is sitting in this year’s Feed Nigeria Summit as a thematic area”, he explained.
Furthermore, he stated that the Summit will be setting up and calibrating the Deal Room with which the USAID Feed The Future is a partner in a manner that it provides support for the agricultural sector around financing.
He said the Deal Room will also have key partners like African Development Bank (AfDB), International Fund for Agriculture Development (IFAD), and the United Kingdom Department for International Trade.
Richard stated that this year’s Feed Nigeria Summit which will also focus on youth and gender is Innovative in itself.
“We are looking through galvanised sectoral stakeholders’ capacity to hold government regarding the need for policies to be conceptualised, implemented and appraised in line with the realities from the feelers coming from the private sector.
“We are putting the private sector at the forefront and we are representing the private sector in the agricultural ecosystem”, he added.
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Osibanjo, UK High Commissioner, Agric Minister to lead discussion on feed Nigeria Summit
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