Ministry solicits police to protect crops

Prof. Joseph Utsev, minister of water resources and sanitation, has asked the police for help in securing the farms and facilities owned by the Lower Niger River Basin Development Authority (LNRBDA) across the nation.

On Saturday, Utsev asked for assistance in Ilorin while opening a water project built by the LNRBDA at the police command headquarters in Kwara.

He stated that the ministry must implement food security, which is a key element of President Bola Tinubu's "Renewed Hope" agenda.

Since our farms and facilities are dispersed around the nation, we depend on the assistance of the police to protect them and increase food security.

"Food security is an important part of President Tinubu's 'Renewed Hope' platform. We cannot influence the president's economic strategy without food security,'' the minister said.

According to the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN), the Federal Government during the event empowered 50 youngsters who had recently finished their training under the Graduate Youth Empowerment Scheme of the LNRBA.

The programme is designed to train and empower youths to be self-reliant and to meet the nation’s need in food sufficiency.

The youths, male and female from Kwara and Kogi were trained in poultry, fish-farming, horticulture and crop farming. They got cash and relevant input to start their farming businesses.

Presenting the empowerment materials at a food exhibition, the minister charged beneficiaries to put the knowledge they had acquired and the empowerment tools given to them into judicious use.

He also said that the ministry was working toward providing potable water for drinking, sanitation and irrigation.

He claims that providing water for agriculture will have three distinct advantages.

"The irrigation water will be used to produce food; it will bring in money for the government and give young people work," he stated.

Dr. Adeniyi Aremu, the managing director of LRNBDA, spoke at the water scheme's inauguration and said that the organization began educating young people in 2016 and has continued to do so.

This year, he remarked, "We provided irrigation items to 50 graduates."

Prior to that, Utsev paid Gov. AbdulRahman AbdulRazaq of Kwara, Chairman of the Nigeria Governor's Forum (NGF), a courtesy call.

He encouraged AbdulRazaq to persuade the other governors to cooperate with the ministry in order to carry out the president's vision for Renewed Hope.

In response, the governor instructed the ministry to study the viability of dredging the Rivers Niger and Benue in order to stop recurring flooding and improve food security.

AbdullRazaq bemoaned the fact that numerous sizable agro-allied businesses had to cease operations as a result of the harm that the flooding of the Rivers Niger and Benue had done to them.

To prevent projects in states from being duplicated, he encouraged the ministry to also collaborate with state governments.