West African Countries Depend On Nigeria For Food Sufficiency

Minister of State for Agriculture and Rural Development, Heineken Lokpobiri disclosed that the survival of most West African countries depends on the contribution of Nigeria in the area of food sufficiency.

Lokpobiri said this when Lisandro Martins, the Regional Director of  International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD), visited the minister in Abuja.

This was contained in a statement by the minister’s Director of Media, George Oji, on Tuesday.

The statement read: “Whatever we do here essentially feeds the whole of West Africa. The seeds we produce here essentially services the whole of West Africa, the grains we produce here services the whole of West Africa.

“Whatever happens here affects the whole of West Africa. So, whatever support you are giving to Nigeria is essentially the support given to the whole of West Africa.

“As a government, we will give priority to our partnership, whatever is needed to be done on the part of the government, we will endeavour to do.”

The regional director of  IFAD promised that the  agency would deploy more staff to Nigeria to assist the nation in food sufficiency.

“We are working with our team to bring additional staff to Nigeria because this is clearly a country that is almost like a continent, where we realise the capacity we have at the moment is not sufficient,” Martins said.