COVID-19: FG kicks off Agric for food and job plan

The Federal Government has launched the  Agriculture for  food and job plan, AFJP, a major take-off for the agriculture component of the Nigeria Economic and Sustainability Plan (NESP) targeting smallholder farmers.

The project would mitigate the negative impact of COVID-19 on the economy and livelihoods of farmers by creating more access to food for and the rapid emergence of a competitive food production, processing and distribution in Nigeria.

The Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development, Alhaji Muhammad Sabo Nanono stated this during the official launch of the Agriculture for food and job plan(AFJP) in Funtua, Katsina state on Thursday.

Alhaji Nanono informed that President Muhammadu Buhari set up an Economic Sustainability Committee (ESC) chaired by the Vice President, Prof Yemi Osibanjo to fashion out a plan on COVID -19 intervention.

Alhaji Nanono said one of the strategies adopted by the Committee is the Agriculture for Food and Job Plan (AFJP), stating that the programme will aid  the transformation of the Nigerian agriculture from its largely low yielding and subsistence state to a high yielding technology based farming system.

The Minister said that the plan, “is also in tandem with the three pronged action plan of the Ministry to deal with the impact of the pandemic on Nigerian agriculture and farmers’’.

In his Goodwill message, the Chairman, Senate Committee on Agriculture, Senator Abdullahi Adamu, stressed that the Agric sector is the bedrock of the economy and appreciated President Buhari for his visionary policies in the Agric sector.