The National Agricultural Foundation of Nigeria (NAFN) and All Farmers Association of Nigeria (AFAN) have appealed to President Bola Tinubu to grace the 2023 Agricultural Show scheduled for Nov. 20 to Nov. 24.
They said the president’s presence at the exhibition scheduled to hold at Abuja-Keffi Road, Karu LGA, Nasarawa State, would be a sign of his commitment to the attainment of food security in the country.
The organisations made the call in a statement signed by Kabiru Ibrahim, National President, AFAN, and Chairman Board of Trustee, NAFN and made available to the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) on Monday in Abuja.
The event is expected to provide AFAN and all stakeholders in the agricultural space immense visibility going forward.
Ibrahim said the declaration of a ‘State of Emergency on Food Security’ by the administration called for decisive action.
He said that the hallmark of the declaration was incentivising the smallholder farmers to work assiduously in a secured environment towards.
“The administration should ‘walk the talk’ on account of the attainment of sustainable ‘food security’ amidst the serious challenges of climate change, insecurity, inflation and the wars between Russian and Ukraine and the recent one between HAMAS (Palestine) and Israel.
“Nigeria is at a precipice and all hands should be on deck to turn the situation around our food system.’’
He urged chairmen of AFAN state chapters and all stakeholders in the agricultural space to mobilise their members who were largely smallholder farmers responsible for feeding the over 200,000,000 of the nation’s population in their neighborhood.
“We look forward to receiving you at the show ground as a testimony to the commitment and immense desire to feed Nigerians regardless of all the challenges,’’ he said.(NAN)
