In a bid to tackle food insecurity caused by flooding, conflict and other natural disasters, Food and Agriculture Organisation of the United Nations (FAO), says it will partner with the Nigerian government to help farmers build resilience in practicing efficient agriculture. Briefing journalists in Abuja, the FAO Deputy-Director, Office of Emergencies and Resilience, Shukri Ahmed stressed that the development was part of the activities included in their visit to Nigeria. According to him, the partnership plans would provide technical support especially to vulnerable section of smallholder farmers and help them build resilience of agriculture-based livelihoods to multiple shocks. His words: “The partnership in the end is to make a difference in the life of those that are in the rural areas, mostly neglected smallholder farmers as these are trying times as you know the shocks are increasing, and they are cascading, whether it’s climate related one time you talk about drought, then suddenly you are we are talking about floods.” “In Nigeria, there are displacements due to conflicts and which are negatively affecting poor farmers, hence FAO from the very beginning, with its main mandate to eliminate hunger and poverty, and in a way sustainable and natural.” “So, this mission in particular is to work and bring the technical know-how of FAO to support the government, by bringing partners together to actually make a difference in the life of those downtrodden.” On his part, the FAO Assistant Director-General, Abebe Haile-Gabriel stressed that the aim of the visit was to interact with different stakeholders, in order to achieve food security and sustainable development goals agenda of zero hunger. Meanwhile, FAO representative to Nigeria and ECOWAS Fred Kofero said the organisation was committed to mobilizing expertise to support all the areas that were identified
