By Marcus Ikechukwu
The federal government says it has placed an order for the import of no less than 25,000 metric tonnes of wheat from Ukraine.
Speaking on Wednesday, Mohammad Mahmood Abubakar, minister of agriculture and rural development, after the Federal Executive Council (FEC) meeting presided over by President Muhammadu Buhari at the Presidential Villa, Abuja, said the government was also expecting an unspecified quantity of potassium from Russia, which is a bye product for the production of fertilizer in Nigeria.
While the wheat from Ukraine is currently seaborne, talks between Russia and the Nigerian government on the importation of potassium are still ongoing, the minister said.
According to Mohammad, the ship carrying the wheat is expected to berth in Portharcourt from where it would be distributed across Nigeria and neigbouring African countries.
He explained that Nigeria may become a hub for accessing wheat, especially with the strained relationship between Ukraine and Russia.
Asked why the country is patronizing the two war-torn countries, Mohammad maintained that Nigeria has a neutral policy, hence can do business with any country it deems necessary.
The minister said the also FEC deliberated on a memo on the national revised seed policy, a move he said was aimed at boosting agricultural productivity in the country.
He said there were plans to inject Genetically Modified Organisms GMO seeds into the national food chain to produce enough food to meet the teaming population growth.
“The Federal Minister of Agriculture, rural development presented a memo today on our revised 2022 National Agricultural Seed Policy.
“Before now we have been operating on the 2010 policy, which was revised in 2015. And we just also revised that again to 2022. Why the revision?
“For seeds, what you plant is what you reap. With the current continuous development in technology, seeds are always being upgraded standardize four to five with several vitamins. There’s also the issue of genetically modified organisms or seeds if you will.
“So, this revision, seeks to confirm global best practice in yield.
Our farmers must have access to the best quality seeds that have been fortified, seeds that can produce the yield that will be worth their while, seeds that can produce again, and the products that comes can compete in the world market. This is the basis for this particular policy.
“The implementing agency is the National Agricultural Seed Council of Nigeria. The same agency works with the department within the Ministry, and also work with other agencies and MDAs that are also involved in some ways with agriculture, work with civil society organizations, and international agencies.
“Nigeria every year holds a summit that we call Seed Connect. This is an international summit that discusses and focuses on improvement development in seeds from around the globe. So seeds are really very important, very critical, as you all know, the agric sector from a great part of the GDP of this country and all that we focus on smallholder farmers,” he told reporters.