President Muhammadu Buhari has called on farmers in Nigeria to produce more food for local consumption in order to avoid food importation.
Addressing journalists, the President made this appeal at the Presidential Villa in Abuja on Sunday after observing a private ‘Eid’ prayer with his family to mark the end of the Ramadan fast.
The President, who wished the farmers “best of luck,” also expressed hope that the rainy season would be productive to farmers.
He said, “I wish the farmers could go and stay in their farms so that we can produce what we sufficiently so that we don’t have to import. In any case, we don’t have money to import so we must produce what we have to eat.”
Prior to the outbreak of the coronavirus pandemic, Nigeria had restricted food importation to encourage local production and consumption of foods, shutting borders to prevent smuggling of staple foods like rice, poultry, and petroleum products.
In April, Buhari called on the Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development, Sabo Nanono, and other key players in the agric sector to join the Presidential Task Force (PTF) on COVID-19 to strategise how to reduce the impact of the pandemic on farmers.
