The Federal Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development says its blueprint for the development of the agricultural sector will be ready in two weeks’ time.

The Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development, Chief Audu Ogbeh, said this when he met with the Senate Committee on Agriculture in his office, on Tuesday, in Abuja.

“In another two weeks at the very farthest, we shall be presenting to you our road map, we shall be presenting it to you before we present it to the country.

“We will give you an idea of how we want to go about what we want to do, the areas of preference and the emphasis we want to lay on improving on production, creating wealth, cutting down on import because today the import bill is extremely high.”

Ogbeh said the country had become a dependent nation due to the neglect agriculture had suffered in the past.

He said that agriculture was capable of guaranteeing Nigeria self sufficiency in food production and freedom from import.

The minister said the country’s volume of imports in rice and wheat was already reducing, adding that his ministry’s target was working on milk importation.

Ogbeh expressed optimism that there would be gradual improvement in tuber production and processing as well as cotton production for the textile industry.

He identified the dearth of tractors as a major challenge confronting the sector, adding that only about 30,000 tractors were now working effectively in the country.

In his remarks, the Chairman, Senate Committee on Agriculture, Sen. Abdullahi Adamu, lauded the approach adopted by the present administration towards developing agriculture.

“We as a standing committee of the senate are happy to say here that this administration of President Muhammadu Buhari has been absolutely clear in saying the word and in acting in like manner that agriculture should come back to the front burner in the affairs of management of the economy of Nigeria.

“We are, therefore, assuring the ministry in the course of this visit or interaction that in all we will do in our oversight responsibility as provided by the constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, we will not be unmindful of the thrust of this administration as far as agriculture is concerned and to ensure that we will do nothing that will create problems on the way of implementations of the very well conceived policies for promoting agriculture.” (NAN)

•Photo shows Audu Ogbeh.

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