Food Security: Shettima Highlights AI Role in New Agricultural Push

Vice-President Kashim Shettima says the federal government is deploying artificial intelligence (AI), geospatial analytics, and other modern technologies to enhance food production and minimise agricultural waste across Nigeria’s value chain.

Speaking Monday at the United Nations Food Systems Summit Stocktake (UNFSS+4) in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, Shettima emphasised that such technologies are now part of Nigeria’s agricultural vocabulary.

“The Fourth Industrial Revolution has not only disrupted the old order but gifted us instruments that were once confined to imagination. Artificial intelligence, geospatial analytics and satellite-driven climate intelligence are now part of our agricultural vocabulary,” he said.

“We are deploying these tools to monitor production, enhance transparency, connect producers to markets and reduce waste across the value chain.”

The vice-president noted that food and nutrition have become central components of the country’s National Development Plan 2021–2025 and the Nigeria Agenda 2050.

“Food insecurity is no longer a shadow lurking in distant lands. It is a shared affliction,” he stated.

Shettima said Nigeria is collaborating with the African Development Bank and the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD) to invest in special agro-industrial processing zones that will link rural producers to global markets and create jobs.

He highlighted efforts to scale up school feeding programmes, community-driven nutrition education, and the Nutrition 774 initiative, which places local governments at the core of nutrition delivery.

“These hubs are engines of transformation. They create jobs, attract private capital and link rural producers to national and global markets,” he added.

Shettima reaffirmed Nigeria’s commitment to multilateral partnerships, saying:

“The world we desire will not emerge from declarations alone. It must be built with patience and persistence, bold ideas and careful planning, shared resolve and shared responsibility.”

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