Meeting with The Honourable Abubakar Shaib Kyari, Minister of Agriculture and Food Security of the Federal Republic of Nigeria

Rabat - FAO Director-General QU Dongyu met today in Rabat with The Honourable Abubakar Shaib Kyari, Minister of Agriculture and Food Security of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, on the margins of the 33rd Session of the FAO Regional Conference for Africa (ARC33). 

The Director-General thanked the Minister for the longstanding collaboration with Nigeria over the years, and further stated that there was a need for more solidarity and coherence among African countries to enhance their development agenda and to attain food security.  

The Minister thanked the Director-General for the support of FAO in the projects and programmes in the country and indicated there was a need to strengthen their water resources management to increase irrigation capabilities for better production. He stated that the country was successfully using solar energy to enhance irrigation schemes and for aquaculture. 

The Minister asked for support on environment and biodiversity assessment for some areas in Nigeriawhich had been adversely affected by climatic shocks and climate change.

He also asked for assistance for a beneficiary assessment census to determine the number of their people in need of support.

The Director-General congratulated Nigeria for their efforts in improving water resources management and reaffirmed FAO’s commitment to ensure success of the initiatives. The Director-General referred to biodiversity and the need to increase technical cooperation, including through initiatives such as the  Great Green Wall of the Sahel Initiative, to strengthen it further. He also recognized the need to increase resilience programmes in Nigeria and reaffirmed FAO’s willingness to provide the technical expertise needed.

Both agreed that food security and sovereignty was key to achieve stability and agreed to continue working together towards agrifood systems transformation.