The All Farmers Association of Nigeria (AFAN) has called on the Federal Government of Nigeria to invest in science, technology, and innovation (STI), which includes genetic modification and genome editing, to produce more food for the populace.

The President of the association, Arc Kabir Ibrahim, at the Annual Agricultural Show organized by the National Agricultural Foundation of Nigeria (NAFN), held in Nasarawa State, urged the government to encourage the spread of technology to enable smallholder farmers to scale their productivity.

In addition to the promotion of STI, Ibrahim highlighted other immediate actions needed to scale up food production, including the stemming of insecurity that impedes seamless access to farms, the provision of direct subsidies on seeds and all inputs by all tiers of government, the provision of mechanization, and the enablement of all-year-round production through irrigation.

“The expansion of the adoption of STI (Science, Technology, and Innovation), including embracing biotechnology leading to GM and genome editing, ensuring industrial harmony among all stakeholders in Nigeria’s agriculture space, unleashing processing, as well as providing ready-produce markets or commodity exchanges,”

He harped on the need for direct subsidies on fertilizers by patronizing the nearly 70 blending companies created through the Presidential Fertilizer Initiative (PFI) so as to resuscitate the PFI and make fertilizers available and affordable for smallholder farmers.

According to him, the government must resuscitate the National Food Reserve Agency (NFRA) by appointing seasoned and educated farmers as board chairs of the National Agricultural Seed Council, the Agricultural Research Council of Nigeria, and the National Agriculture Development Fund.

The AFAN President suggested the need for a very strong synergy between the Ministry of Agriculture and Food Security and the Federal Ministry of Water Resources and Sanitation to ensure all-round agricultural production using our irrigable land efficiently by exploiting our dams and even groundwater.
https://farmersmanual.com/afan-calls-on-fg-to-improve-food-production-through-gm-technology/