TINUBU, OMO-AGEGE DONATE N200M RELIEF MATERIALS, CASH TO DISPLACED FLOOD VICTIMS IN DELTA

“Between the Federal Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development, the Central Bank and other private investors in agriculture, there's enough grains in our own silos, in CBN and silos, that will cater for any eventualities and currently, the Humanitarian Ministry is picking up some grains from us to distribute to the needy. So I can assure you, by the grace of God, there will be no food shortage.”

On what the preliminary outlook of the damage to farming by the floods looked like, he said, “definitely, it’s telling us that yes, we have lost some farmlands. For example, I can give you one. The Olam, which is a private organization, has a rice mill that has been totally submerged, about 4000 hectares.

“So there are farmlands that are definitely damaged. But what are we going to do, like I said, it’s to use dry season farming to compensate for this loss. In fact, we are planning to even produce twice during this dry season farming for some of the crops,” he said.

Speaking on the approved memorandum, the Minister said, “today the Federal Ministry of Agriculture Rural Development presented a memo on the Revised Comprehensive Emergency Preparedness and Response Plan for the Highly Pathogenic Avian Influenza in Nigeria, (the Animal Component).

“If you’ll recall, bird flu has been something that we see and hear about in Asia, but of course, in 2006, Nigeria experienced the very first one and at the time, we lost about 1.2 million birds, chicken.

“This is a highly pathogenic viral infection that is so contagious and Zoonotic, meaning it can go from animals to humans and can cause death and can cause sickness. So the previous policy was put together by experts back in 2005, in order to contain, quickly, any kind of outbreak of bird flu. But the sector has grown so much with additional importation of maybe new and exotic birds.

“Therefore, the need to revise this policy and produce a new one that will conform with the current happenings in the industry. That is why this new policy is being put forward by the ministry and it’s the same, I mean, it's called the Comprehensive Emergency Preparedness and Response Plan to contain any future occurrence”, Abubakar said.