It also revealed that the country has about 50 million hectares of uncultivated arable lands.
The government also urged all Nigerians, their primary occupation notwithstanding, to develop a culture of planting crops on every available soil, as a strategy towards ensuring food security in the country.
The Minister of State for Agriculture and Food Security, Senator Aliyu Sabi, made this known in Abuja on Monday while speaking to journalists covering the Senate.
He explained that out of the eight-point agenda of President Bola Tinubu-led administration, food security is the most critical because of the multifaceted benefits that could be realised from the policy.
He stated that some of the benefits include a war against corruption because some people take to corruption as a way of life as a result of poverty and hunger, saying that this could be substantially addressed by food security.
“When you secure their stomachs, the tendency for average Nigerians, to resort to corruption or outright crime and criminalities, would be reduced.
” Nigerians need to key into the policy by planting something whereever they live. The government is also determined to get a substantial part of the uncultivated hectares of land in the country cultivated.
“As it is presently, out of 70-80 million hectares of arable land in the country, only a 34million hectares, are cultivated, meaning that there is more than enough uncultivated arable land for government and Nigerians to explore for farming and by extension, ensuring food security in the country,” he said.
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