Kyari seeks stronger federal, state policy alignment
By Ndahi Marama, Maiduguri
The Federal Government, in collaboration with the German government, has begun engaging states on the development and implementation of policy measures aimed at strengthening food security and building resilient livelihoods across Nigeria.
The engagement was held under a Community of Practice Summit organised by the Federal Ministry of Agriculture and Food Security in collaboration with the Borno State Government, with support from Germany.
The summit, held in Maiduguri on Monday, focused on sustainable agricultural production, investment and financing, food and nutrition security, trade, inclusion, resilience and stronger governance.
Declaring the summit open, the Minister of Agriculture and Food Security, Abubakar Kyari, said stronger alignment between the Federal Government and states was essential to achieving sustainable food security.
Kyari said such alignment must translate into compatible policies, reliable data, complementary investments and clear responsibilities for implementation.
“Alignment between the Federal and State Governments is indispensable to sustainable food security and resilient livelihoods. That alignment must translate into compatible policies, reliable data, complementary investments and clarity of responsibility for delivery.
“We need one coherent agrifood system in which national direction and State-level execution reinforce one another,” he said.
The minister said the summit would also take into account the Kampala Comprehensive Africa Agriculture Development Programme (CAADP) Declaration and its Strategy and Action Plan for 2026–2035.
According to him, the Kampala framework adopts a broader agrifood systems approach, with priorities covering sustainable production, investment and finance, food and nutrition security, trade, inclusion, resilience and governance.
“For a country of Nigeria’s scale, the choices we make in agriculture have consequences beyond our borders, for regional markets, Africa’s wider agrifood transformation and Nigeria’s place in the global food economy,” Kyari said.
He noted that Nigeria had developed and validated a 10-year National Agrifood System Strategy and Action Plan as a vehicle for domesticating the commitments under the Kampala framework.
The minister said the summit provided an important sub-national mechanism for translating the declaration into concrete implementation.
He urged states to ensure their action plans aligned with the Kampala commitments and national priorities, particularly in rural infrastructure, agricultural extension, access to credit and quality inputs, labour-saving technologies, post-harvest loss reduction and climate-resilient agriculture.
“I therefore urge our deliberations here in Borno to focus firmly on implementation. States should leave this meeting clearer on how their action plans will advance the Kampala commitments and align with national priorities,” he said.
Also speaking, Head of Development Cooperation at the German Embassy in Nigeria, Dr Karin Jansen, said Germany was supporting Nigeria’s implementation of the Kampala Agenda by strengthening institutions and processes required to translate policies into action.
Jansen said the support would focus on three key areas: coordination; policy alignment and state-level implementation; and monitoring and accountability.
On coordination, she said Germany would strengthen mechanisms connecting federal institutions, state governments and non-state actors, including the CAADP Community of Practice and a dedicated pre-Community of Practice workshop for non-state actors.
She said support for policy alignment and state-level implementation would include efforts to align agricultural policies and plans with the Kampala Agenda.
This, she said, would involve the review of the National Agricultural Technology and Innovation Policy (NATIP) 2022–2027 and capacity development in selected states to align their State Agricultural Development Plans with the CAADP Kampala framework and Nigeria’s Third Nationally Determined Contribution (NDC 3.0).
On monitoring and accountability, Jansen said Germany would support evidence-based implementation through the CAADP Biennial Review, development of Joint Sector Reviews for 2024–2026 and consultations on the 2027 Food Systems Budget.
Participants at the summit included state commissioners of agriculture, policymakers, development practitioners, agricultural experts, researchers, farmers, private-sector actors and development partners
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