As part of measures to forestall famine which was predicted to occur in 2017, the Federal Government has commenced massive stockpiling of assorted grains.

This development was disclosed by the Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development, Chief Audu Ogbeh, in Abuja when members of the House Committee on Agriculture and Rural Development came on an oversight visit at the ministry.

According to CEOAfrica’s source, the Sun, Ogbeh said the ministry has engaged in the buying of assorted grains under the Guarantee Minimum Price Programme for restocking of strategic silo complexes while farmers in some states of the federation have already commenced preparation for dry season farming to ensure food security in the country.

On the implementation of the 2016 budget, the minister identified inadequate funding and bureaucratic bottlenecks in the handling of the procurement process as obstacles to the ministry’s operations.

He put the level of budget release to the ministry at 61 per cent and said the sector has continuously experienced decline of budgetary allocations that fall short of the Maputo Declaration of 10 per cent of national budget allocation to the agriculture sector. “The procurement process has slowed down the implementation of budget, we began implementation about a month ago because the processes were not fast,” he said.

Despite the challenges, Ogbeh explained that the ministry had acquired 110 various capacities of rice mills of 10, 20 and 50 tonnes per day for distribution to cluster farmers to boost rice production in the country.

The minister also noted that the 30,000 slots allocated to the ministry under the N-Power scheme of the Federal Government would be trained through the Agricultural Development Programmes as agric extension workers and sent to local government areas of the country.