The Minister of Science and Technology, Dr. Ogbonnaya Onu, has re-stated the commitment of the Federal Government to utilize the application of Science, Technology and Innovations to increase food production.
This was contained in a statement issued on Tuesday in Abuja by Taye Akinyemi, the Deputy Director of Press in the ministry.
Onu spoke when the organizing committee of Africa Technology and Agribusiness Forum 2016 paid him a courtesy visit.
Onu pledged to support the committee to ensure that Nigeria had a successful hosting of the Forum.
He said STI could help to harness available raw materials in the country to curtail insecurity, unemployment and poverty.
Onu said: “We are working closely with Federal Ministry of Agriculture and Natural Resources to ensure that we start processing food crops by making sure food is available all year round.
“We are also looking inward to start using local raw materials.”
The minister noted that science and technology were very crucial to ensuring that farming became a business.
According to him, technology is needed to determine space, land preparation and management.
Earlier, the Chairman of the committee, Samuel Olaniyan, said the visit was to seek support from the ministry on the hosting of the 13th edition of Africa Agribusiness Forum tagged “Agribusiness 2016” in Nigeria.
According to Olaniyan, the forum is an international meeting that will involve agricultural sector, investors, producers, financiers, agro- services providers, researchers, innovators, technologists and policy makers, among others.
He said hosting of the forum in Nigeria would attract huge investment into agricultural enterprise into the country.
Olaniyan said: “It will strengthen the nation’s import substitution programme making the economy less-dependent on imports and turning Nigeria into a major exporter of processed agricultural products.”
Olaniyan said the forum would be anchored by the European Marketing Research Council of Brussels, Belgium in partnership with the hosting government and international institutions as co-sponsors.
