The Vice President of Nigeria, Alhaji Kashim Shettima, says that Nigeria is deploying modern technology like artificial intelligence, geospatial analytics and satellite-based climate tools to transform its agriculture and achieve food security.
Shettima told the United Nations Food Systems Summit Stocktake (UNFSS+4) on Monday in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia that Nigeria is deploying these tools to monitor production, enhance transparency, connect producers to markets and reduce waste across the value chain.
“The Fourth Industrial Revolution has not only disrupted the old order but gifted us instruments that were once confined to imagination.
“Artificial intelligence, geospatial analytics and satellite-driven climate intelligence are now part of our agricultural vocabulary.
“We are deploying these tools to monitor production, enhance transparency, connect producers to markets and reduce waste across the value chain,” he said.
According to him, food insecurity is no longer a shadow lurking in distant lands. It is a shared affliction.
He added that Nigeria was not relying on rhetoric alone, but scaling the cultivation of staple crops like maize, rice, cassava, and wheat, and backing them with climate-smart innovations and financial inclusion for farmers, especially women and youth.
Shettima disclosed that Nigeria has adopted the National Food Systems Transformation Pathway, investments in agro-industrial zones, and the Presidential Initiative on Food Security.
Citing the ongoing institutional reforms and strategic partnerships with the African Development Bank (AfDB) and the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD), Shettima described the Nigeria’s Special Agro-Industrial Processing Zones as engines for rural transformation and improved market access.
He called for concerted efforts of African countries in the bid to improve agricultural production across the continent, stressing that a broken food system in any part of the world diminishes humanity.
“Let us rise with shared purpose and build a world where no child goes to bed hungry and food is a right, not a luxury,” local media reports quoted Shettima as saying.
GIK/APA