With rising cost of food items and growing population into the nation’s capital, the FCT Administration recently inaugurated an Inter-Departmental Committee on Irrigation to boost food production in the territory.
The Secretary for Agriculture and Rural Development in the FCT, Mallam Abubakar Ibrahim, while inaugurating the committee in his office stressed that farming during the dry season will not only bolster food production but also make food prices more affordable.
He said the constitution of the committee was an outcome of the management meeting where he stressed the need for farmers to be encouraged to engage in farming during the dry season.
In his words, “The objective of setting up this Committee is to look into ways that we can support more farmers engage in all year farming not only during the dry season. The Committee will need to conduct a geographic assessment of the FCT in order to recommend support strategies through improvement of the irrigation systems.”
Abubakar further disclosed that the FCT Administration has approved the procurement of some critical farm inputs such as agro-chemicals as well as water pumping machines which will be sold to FCT farmers at 50percent subsidized rates.
“Our plan is to distribute some of the inputs we have procured during this dry season in February while we prepare for a major support for farmers on time before the commencement of rain in March,” he said.
The committee, he noted will be supported by the expertise of agricultural engineers to ensure that the intervention of the Secretariat will meet required standards for durability and effective utilization. He charged the committee to explore partnership with investors to support to initiative.
The committee which is chaired by the Secretary, consists of membership from the technical departments of the Secretariat.
