Nigerian Newsday

By Abubakar Sani

A four-day summit on food security which aim at tackling Africa’s food insecurity, reduce poverty and generate employment and create wealth is to be hosted by Abuja, the Federal Capital Territory from December 4 - 7.

Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development, Malam Adamu Bello made this known at a press briefing on preparations for the forthcoming summit scheduled to hold the International Conference Centre.

The upcoming summit, Malam Adamu Bello said, is one of such follow-up actions aimed at assessing the level of implementation of resolutions taken in the past where food security and related issues were discussed.

All member states the minister said, are expected to be present at the summit to present update report on the implementation of the 1996 World Food Security and the Mapuko Declaration on Food Security in Africa.

Some of the issues expected to be resolved at the summit, the minister said include mobilizing resources to implement priority.

Food and nutrition security interventions at all levels with emphasis on what ensures rapid increase in African production of Key commodities.

The summit, which has the theme "Food security: An engine of growth and Poverty Alleviation in Africa" is expected to bring together African Heads of state and other stakeholders from member states to discuss and come up within a revised Food Security Action Plan and appropriate strategies to be adopted by each member state in order to tackle the issue of international food insecurity.

The summit is also expected to ensure systematic integration of nutrition considerations into all agricultural and food security interventions.