ABUJA – The prevailing food crisis in the country and how Nigerians can be salvaged from the situation was top in the deliberations of the National Economic Council (NEC) meeting chaired by the Vice President Kashim Shettima on Thursday at the Presidential Villa, Abuja.

Beyond this, the meeting deliberated extensively on the need to distribute fertilisers to the farming community in the country free of charge as a way of encouraging them to produce food massively.

NEC equally reviewed plans to import 2000 tractors into the country to help farmers maxi­mise productivity.

These initiatives come as Nigerians have been grappling with high inflationary trend, es­pecially with staple foods.

Minister of Agriculture and Food Security, Senator Abuba­kar Kyari, said he briefed the Economic Council on the nation­al food security policies.

“The unit is made up of min­isters and also governors, one from every geopolitical region, that is in a sense to have that coordination between federal and the sub nationals to deliver Mr. President’s agenda on food security.

“As Honorable Minister of Agriculture and Food Security, I also briefed Council on the in­terventions on the 42,000 metric tons of which all had been deliv­ered to all the states and then 20 trailers of rice per state. We have also released over 1,500,000 bags of fertiliser, which is under evac­uation by the state governments.

“Then I also went ahead and briefed Council on the mechani­sation programmes undertaken by the administration of Presi­dent Bola Tinubu. We have four in place now. One, the Greener Hope, it’s a 10-year, $1 billion con­sortium led by Origin Group, to syndicate the Greener Hope Ag­ricultural Reform where they will set up 1000 agro-sector ser­vice providers across the country with tractors.

“We’ll have a minimum of 2000 tractors a year for the next five years and all other aggrega­tion of agricultural commodi­ties is going to be utilised at least nothing less than 600,000 youths to man these 1000 service centres. The elaborate plan will be rolled out as soon as it’s feasible. The project was passed by FEC on the 25th of June, which was just two days ago, I briefed NEC on that particular project.

“The other one is the John Deere Tata arrangement, which we’re also expecting 2000 tractors before the end of the year. Then the Greener Imperative Project, which is still in the works, with a 950 million euro project that will soon be unveiled. Then the last one and the most recent one is the Belarus tractors, where it seeks to supply 2000 tractors per year for the next five years, with 9000 implements and spare parts, and 50 to service vehicles, maintenance centres. At the same time, we have also ten 150 horsepower combined harvest­ers,” Abubakar stated.