₦airaland Forum

Abuja —Massive importation of food, especially, rice, wheat, sugar and fish, has continued to bleed
the nation’s economy, with the four items accounting for a whopping N1 trillion loss to the nation
annually.
Executive Secretary,
Agricultural Research
Council of Nigeria,
ARCN, Prof. Baba
Abubakar, disclosed
this at a sensitization
seminar on Genetically
Modified Organisms,
GMOs, and Agricultural
Biotechnology,
organised for staff of
Federal Ministry of
Agriculture and Rural
Development by Biotechnology Development Agency, in collaboration with other OFAB and National
Bio-safety Management Agency, in Abuja, yesterday.
Abubakar, who was represented by the Acting Director, Partnership and Linkages Programme,
Yarama Ndirpaya, noted with dismay that Nigeria had remained a large food importer, in-spite of
massive uncultivated agricultural land across the country.
He said: “Nigeria spends over N1 trillion on the top four food imports annually. And farmers have
limited capacity and use techniques that adversely affect soil fertility, water and biodiversity.
Human-induced climate change compounds the issue.”
According to him, Nigeria is the largest importer of US hard red and white wheat worth N635
billion annually; world’s number 2 importer of rice at N356 billion; N217 billion on sugar and N97
billion on fish.
Abubakar, who described the development as unacceptable, further noted that Nigerian farmers had
limited capacity and used techniques that adversely affected soil fertility, water and biodiversity and
warned that unless farmers were empowered with biotechnology, the problem might linger into the
future.
Applying the principle of total productivity factor, TPF, he revealed that of Nigeria’s 98 Mha land, 74
Mha, representing 75 per cent was good for farming, but lamented that less than half was put to
use.

AND THIS CLUELESS GOVERNMENT JUST SPENT OVER . TRILLION ON MUSLIM PILGRIMS GOING FOR HAJ, TALK ABOUT STUPI.DITY

adeusolu:
AND THIS CLUELESS GOVERNMENT JUST SPENT OVER . TRILLION ON MUSLIM PILGRIMS GOING FOR HAJ, TALK ABOUT STUPI.DITY

Do u know what is 1 trillion??
Are u ok at all??

mrvitalis:
Do u know what is 1 trillion??
Are u ok at all??

you de mind d mumu

adeusolu:
AND THIS CLUELESS GOVERNMENT JUST SPENT OVER . TRILLION ON MUSLIM PILGRIMS GOING FOR HAJ, TALK ABOUT STUPI.DITY

u need to be cane out of dis thread......shiit

There are great business potentials in Nigeria despite the present challenges if only ppl will think and look deep.

How??