The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations organized a stakeholder workshop to share perspectives on the policy outcome about selected agri-produce and their impacts on the economy of this country in the drive towards strengthening the sustainable growth of the agricultural sector in Nigeria.
The workshop held in Abuja, which fell under the policy options for optimizing Agriculture Sector Growth, Job creation, and food security in Nigeria, shared recent findings from FAO’s Monitoring and Analyzing Food and Agriculture Policie Programme. Objectives also targeted strategically improving the awareness of participants on key existing methods that can be put to use in solving issues in the sector.
In his keynote address, the Director of Planning and Policy Coordination in the Federal Ministry of Agriculture and Food Security, Mr Tanimu Ibrahim, while identifying the exercise as relevant to the country, commended FAO for the undertaking of the analysis and gave assurance that the outcome of the analysis would be used in supporting the efforts of the present administration for food and nutrition security in the country.
On this, the FAO Representative ad interim in Nigeria, Dominique Koffy Kouacou, said the objective of MAFAP, which is to bring out evidence-based policy options for improvement in the agricultural sector, supports the government of Nigeria in order to tide over the food security and malnutrition challenges.
“We look forward to further engagements based on options revealed by the analysis carried out”, said Mr. Koffy.
The participants to this workshop include officers from the Bank of Agriculture, Federal Ministry of Agriculture and Food Security, the Federal Ministry of Budget and National Planning, Federal Ministry of Industry, Trade and Investment, some Agriculture research institutes, development partners and other
agencies.
Dr. Marco Sanchez, Deputy Director, FAO’s Agrifood Economics and Policy Division, in a presentation, said MAFAP had assisted countries in Africa and Asia to pursue more than 30 reforms since the program began.
He furthermore indicated that in the case of Nigeria, the analysis revealed the top areas where investments should go in order to improve food and nutrition security and increase rural employment.
Other presenters gave various perspectives on how policies affecting commodity prices can be better managed for improved outcomes, and others gave perspectives on trends in public expenditure in agriculture.
It was stressed that policies need monitoring, not for a number of years, but after several years to know whether they were achieving intended results. And if not, it would be necessary to amend/revise the policies to see if different results can be obtained.
Interest was noted in the analysis that had been done and discussion of how results may inform policy decisions. There was interest in further analysis with more commodities and prioritization of expenditure in agriculture by the government for improved food and nutrition security outcomes.