The Nigerian Government received additional $3.7 billion in terms of gross benefits to the economy, following a 45 per cent increase in domestic food supply last year. Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development, Dr. Akinwunmi Adesina, made the remarks when he addressed African Union Heads of State and Government at the High Level Meeting to end Hunger in Africa in Addis Ababa.
The AU, FAO and the Lula Institute jointly convened the meeting with the theme, "Unified approach to end hunger in Africa by 2025", within the Comprehensive Africa Agriculture Development Programme (CAADP) framework. Adesina said farmers across Nigeria made a net income benefit of $1.1 billion from the additional nine million metric tonnes of food produced within the 2012 farming season.
He said the development followed the government launch of an Agricultural Transformation Agenda in 2011 targeted at producing additional 20 million metric tonnes of food at the end of 2015 farming season.
"Nigeria's Agricultural Transformation Agenda of making an additional 20 million tonnes of food for our domestic food supply is built on the CAADP process. "This has added a total of 3.7 billion dollars in terms of gross economic benefits to the domestic economy. Farmers gained net income benefits of 1.1 billion dollars.
“ Adesinathe list of countries that received the recognition of FAO for outstanding achievement in reducing the number of people suffering from chronic hunger and for making notable progress in guaranteeing food security for our citizens.
The FAO statistics showed that the number of Nigerians suffering from hunger reduced from 19.31 million from 1990 to 1992 to 13.38 million from 2010 to 2012. "The prevalence of undernourishment declined from 19.3 per cent between 1990 and 1991 to 8.5 per cent between 2010 and 2012.
"This is below the set MDG1 target of 9.7 per cent we are pleased to have achieved the MDG 1 target on hunger, three years ahead of schedule. "While we are proud of this achievement, we continue to accelerate investments in agriculture to raise food production to address food insecurity."
Adesina said the number of hungry people in Africa estimated at 245 million "is not acceptable, politically, economically or socially. Hunger should be eliminated on the continent."
The high level meeting was attended by 15 AU Heads of State and Government including Nigeria's former Presidents Olusegun Obasanjo and John Kufuor of Ghana.
The AU Chairman, Ethiopian Prime Minister Hailemariam Desalegn, had during the opening of the session renewed member states commitment on ending hunger on the continent within the targeted period of 2025.
Participants drawn from CSOs, Experts in Agriculture, Government officials, private sector and women organisations resolved to take definite steps to address the hunger and poverty situation faced by more than 245 million Africans.
