President Muhammadu Buhari on Friday met with former Ethiopian Prime Minister and board chairman of the Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa, AGRA, Hailemariam Dessalegn Boshe, to discuss the challenges of food security in Africa, especially Nigeria, and to strategies on the modalities of achieving zero hunger in the next 10 years.
While receiving in audience the former Ethiopian Prime Minister, the president said the focus on agriculture by his administration is paying off handsomely, and Nigerians are not regretting it.
In his words “we needed to go back to the land, as petroleum could no longer sustain the country, particularly with fluctuating prices. Today, we eat what we grow, and we have stopped the importation of many food products. There’s no foreign exchange to even waste again”.
Speaking with newsmen after the closed-door meeting, Boshe explained that Agra is working with the government to ensure Nigeria leads the Africa agricultural transformation, focusing on food and nutrition security.
Dessalegn-Boshe noted that the greatest threat to food security is climate change complications, adding that partnership with Nigeria on eliminating the threat will fast track the targeted results of achieving SDGs 2030.
According to him, the work of Agra in Nigeria is aligned with the federal government’s agriculture promotion policy, app, the green alternative, and the Economic Recovery and Growth Plan, ERGP II
Agra is a farmer-centered, African-led, and partnerships-driven institution that is transforming Africa’s smallholder farming from a solitary struggle to survive to businesses that thrive.
