Nasarawa Assembly partner State Gov’t on food security

Nasarawa State House of Assembly has assured the State Government of its commitment and partnership in order to ensure food security and sufficiency in the state.

This the House said it will give all the necessary support to ministry of agriculture and NADP for enhancement of agricultural activities in the State.

Hon Dr Peter Akwe, the Chairman, House Committee on Agriculture gave the assurance when the management of Ministry of Agriculture and Nasarawa Agricultural Development Program (NADP) appeared before the committee on their 2024 budgets defence today in Lafia.

Hon Akwe said that majority of the people of the state are farmers, hence the need for the committee to give adequate attention to their budgetary provisions for maximum food production in the state.

He assured the NADP management and the ministry of support to get approval of N30milion in 2024 budget to purchase motorcycles for 200 agricultural extension workers to work across the 13 Local Government Areas of the state.

According to him, agriculture is playing a key role in the economic development of the people and the state and promised to
support the Ministry of Agriculture and NADP to succeed.

He commended the effort of Gov. Abdullahi Sule towards diversifying the economic through agricultural development that will guarantee food security and economic growth to address the challenges of current reality.

The chairman of the committee also assured to address the challenges of manpower in the agricultural sector of the State.

He equally agreed to work in synergy with the NADP and the Ministry for food sufficiency in the state.

Speaking, the Program Manager of NADP, Emmanuel Allahnana and representative of the Ministry of Agriculture, Director Administration and Supply, Julius Kigbu solicited for the committee’s support to overcome challenges of manpower shortage, mobility, approval and releases from the approved budget.

Kigbu said, the ministry want to employ 425 staff to work in the Local Government offices of the ministry.

Emmanuel Allahnana, the NADP programme Manager said that the program is waiting for the approval of the Gov. Sule to employ 200 agricultural extension workers that will work across the 13 Local Government Areas and the Development Areas.

The duo appealed for upward funds adjustments of the 2024 budget in some of the areas where money allocated in the budget are grossly inadequate and need to be increase for better and effective service delivery.