OXFAM, an international agricultural-based organization, says it is working toward eradicating hunger and promoting food security in the country.
Mr Constant Tchona, OXFAM Deputy Country Director, made this known in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) on Friday in Abuja.
The organisation is placing great importance on the world food day, which comes up Oct. 16th every year.
“We are hoping to kick off the conversation on the need to eradicate hunger from the land.
“Nigeria is the land of plenty; endowed with all the natural resources, the land areas, the water bodies, we just need to do more.
“And we at OXFAM, we recognise that the government has put some very great policies in place. The problem is the disconnect between policies and its implementation and we need to do more on the implementation front.
“Key in doing more in the implementation front is to begin to look at how much government is allocating to agriculture.
“The budget circle is around the corner, let’s try this year to do the 10 per cent of the annual budget and see whether the impact is not going to be different.
“This is so important to create employment for the majority of the people – our youths, our female farmers.
“It’s going to be important to promote food security for everybody to have enough to feed the household, enough income and the prosperity, that is what we hope to achieve by doing this,”Tchona said.
The OXFAM official also tasked stakeholders at the states and council levels to prioritise agriculture by giving more supports to the local farmers.
“This is not just something for the Federal Government alone, the ordinary citizen who is affected by hunger needs to step up and make proposition to the leaders,“ he said.
(Source: NAN)