If China can feed over 1bn people, we can feed Nigerians ― Agric Minister

The Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development, Dr Mohammad Abubakar, Thursday, boosted that if China can feed itself with over 1 billion people, Nigeria can also feed herself.

Abubakar stated this during a courtesy visit by the Chinese Ambassador to Nigeria, His Excellency, Cui Jian Chun, to his office in Abuja.

He also expressed readiness that Nigeria would adopt Chinese Juncao technology to boost food security and develop the agricultural sector.

He commended China for initiating various agricultural programmes and projects, which have massively galvanized that country’s agricultural sector, and had attained food self-sufficiency for its mega population.

He said: “If China can feed itself with over 1 billion population, we can too.

“We are ready to leverage on the Chinese technology to also develop our agricultural base.”
Meanwhile, the Minister assured the Chinese Ambassador that Nigeria will partner with China to apply her Juncao technology for grass production for the livestock industry, traditional medicine, and biomass energy for crop protection.

“We want to harness on these projects to create more jobs for Nigerian youth. Anything we do in agriculture is directed to youth empowerment, we will continue to collaborate and cooperate with China to actualise our goals.”

Speaking earlier, the Chinese Ambassador, His Excellency, Cui Jian Chun, explained essence of the visit, which he highlighted areas of mutual, bilateral, and economic benefits between Nigeria and China.

According to Chun, China is ready to launch a 3- prone pilot project in Nigeria using the Juncao technology, which includes mushroom cultivation, traditional medicine, and the Juncao giant grass.

He made it known that the Juncao grass grows faster with high yields with rich nutrition, and also used for the alleviation of soil, and tackles erosion and rocky desertification challenges.

He also added that the technology utilizes Juncao raw materials to produce mushrooms, feeds, fertilizer, biomass energy, biological materials to support environmental protection and climate change response.