Nigeria to become leading groundnuts exporter - Adesina

[FMARDNigeria]

•  The Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development, Dr. Akinwumi Adesina, says Nigeria will regain its position as a world leading groundnuts producer.
  
   
  
  He said this in a keynote address at the 40th anniversary of the International Crops Research Institute for the Semi-Arid Tropics (ICRISAT) in Patancheru, India, on Tuesday.
  
  This was disclosed in a statement issued by Alhaji Salisu Dambatta, the Ministry's Director of Information, in Abuja on Tuesday.
  
  It stated that Nigeria had also signed a three-year collaboration agreement on the rehabilitation and expansion of groundnuts production with the institute.
  
  This agreement, it said, was one of the first major steps in restoring Nigeria's status as a dominant producer and exporter of groundnuts in the world.
  
  According to Adesina, groundnut remains an important crop for resource-poor farmers in Nigeria.
  
  He expressed optimism that the partnership programme between ICRISAT and the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development, would bring back Nigeria's lost glory as a leading groundnuts producer.
  
  The minister's remarks were based on Nigeria's prowess in groundnuts production from the colonial days to the mid-1970s.
  
  This was when the performance of the agricultural sector declined due to a shift of attention to the oil sector and a neglect of the agricultural sector.
  
  Adesina commended the institute for the role it has been playing in agricultural transformation through research in the semi-arid parts of the world.
  
  ``It represents the best hope of farmers in the semi-arid tropics, crucial for the economic prosperity, food and nutritional security of the dry land poor."
  
  The minister acknowledged what he described as ICRISAT's relentless passion in helping Africa and the developing world in over 40 years of research and for development work that had `` left footprints of success globally ''.
  
  He noted that ICRISAT's research work made semi-arid Ethiopia a major world exporter of chickpeas and revolutionalised food production through large-seeded pigeonpea varieties in Tanzania.
  
  This also improved yields through disease-resistant groundnuts in Nigeria, Uganda, Zambia and Mozambique.
  
  Not only that, it also helped farmers across Africa's semi-arid tropics with the technique of fertiliser micro-dosing.
  
  Adesina, a former researcher at the Institute, led a two-member Nigerian delegation to the anniversary.
  
  He delivered the keynote address and briefed some of his counterparts from more than 50 countries on the strides Nigeria was making in enhancing agricultural productivity.
  
  The minister specially mentioned the initiative by the Federal Government in turning subsistence agriculture into business.
  
  The move is with a view to creating jobs and wealth through the development of various agricultural value chains.
  
  The anniversary brought together agricultural researchers and policy makers.
  
  (NAN)

Via: Federal Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development - Official Press Release