Akwa Ibom State Governor, Pastor Umo Eno has said that participation of the State government in the just- concluded African Food System Conference will boost the Agricultural revolution component of the ARISE Agenda of his administration.
Governor Eno gave the indication while addressing Government House correspondents at the Victor Attah International Airport, Uyo, upon his return from the conference which took place in Kigali, Rwanda.
The Governor who was an active participant in the event, lauded the essence and content of the conference as informative and expository, affirming that the 2024 edition particularly availed participants the opportunity to learn and have a peer review to examine their adherence to global trends in food production.
According to him, the conference highlighted the needs for member states of the Africa Food Systems Forum to examine the systems adopted by successful nations to guarantee food security and strategies to accelerate the attainment of same in Africa.
For Akwa Ibom State, the Governor said lessons from the conference will aid review of the State’s Agricultural revolution strategies and fine-tune Government collaboration with donor agencies with a view to ensuring optimum realization of the ARISE Agenda goals.
In his words, “A key component of the ARISE Agenda is the Agricultural Revolution. So we must consistently review the things we are doing, see if it matches best practices globally. And we have come back with a lot of actionable plans that will be put into practice.
“We will be working with donor agencies to complement the things we are doing through the food security and safety committee that will drive the private sector and ensure that we have direct contact with the farmers, and bring together small holder farmers too,” he added.
The Akwa Ibom contingent at the conference, besides the Governor included Secretary to State Government, Prince Enobong Uwah; Commissioner for Agriculture, Dr. Offiong Offor; Commissioner for Culture and Tourism, Sir Charles Udoh.
Others were Commissioner for Economic Development, Mr Emem Bob and Managing Director of Akwa Ibom Investment Corporation AKICORP, Pastor Imoabasi Jacob.
