President Muhammadu Buhari has approved the setting up of integrated farm estates in all senatorial districts across the country.
This was disclosed over the weekend by the Executive Secretary of the National Agricultural Land Development Authority, (NALDA), Prince Paul Ikonne, after a meeting with Buhari at the Presidential Villa in Abuja.
To make the plan successful, Ikonne appealed to the various state governments across the country to subscribe to the project by making arable lands available for the project in their states.
According to the NALDA boss, state governments providing the required land are expected to take away youths from the unemployment market and engage them so as to achieve food security.
He said the Kogi State Government had donated 700 hectares of land to NALDA for the integrated land estate, while the 100 hectares of land donated by the Ogun State Government has already been cleared.
He said that the President was committed to and working towards ensuring that the country achieves food security.
“What the President is doing, the foundation he’s laying in agriculture is what Nigerians would live to remember him for.
“No other government, no other government, I repeat, has done as much as Mr. President has done in agriculture and that is why Nigeria is coming closer to achieving food sufficiency.
“If not for Mr. President’s proactive initiative towards farming, the COVID-19 would have knocked everybody out, having been locked in a room or in a house for one year, nobody went to farm, but because of the proactive initiatives he took before COVID-19 came, there was enough food for Nigerians to eat.
“Going further, we are seeking more land donations so that state governments and communities should make their lands available.