Vice President Kashim Shettima on Tuesday, October 20, 2026, set up a technical committee to speed up federal interventions in wheat, other staple crops and livestock development, Premium Times reported, publishing a statement from the Office of the Vice President. The committee was formed at a high-level meeting on agricultural sector performance at the Presidential Villa, Abuja.
The meeting followed a larger session with President Bola Tinubu the previous week that brought together agricultural and other sector stakeholders, according to the statement. Shettima asked members to share ideas freely and produce a blueprint for carrying out the interventions.
Who Sits on the Panel
The committee will be coordinated by Marion Moon, Technical Adviser to the Vice President on Agriculture and Head of the Presidential Food Systems Coordinating Unit, Voice of Nigeria reported.
Its members include the federal ministries of Agriculture and Food Security, Water Resources and Sanitation, and Livestock Development, together with the Ministry of Finance Incorporated (MOFI). Presidential aides on livestock reform, agribusiness, food security and livestock development also sit on the panel. So do the chief executives of the Bank of Industry, the Bank of Agriculture, the National Agricultural Land Development Authority, the National Agricultural Seeds Council, the National Agricultural Development Fund and the National Centre for Agricultural Mechanization, according to Premium Times. The National Sugar Council of Nigeria, the Nigeria Commodities Exchange and the National Agency for Science and Engineering Infrastructure complete the list.
Wheat and Dry-Season Farming
Agriculture Minister Abubakar Kyari said the meeting looked at challenges facing farmers and at ways to scale up wheat production and dry-season farming. "It is a technical committee with members from the various MDAs to sit and coordinate on behalf of all," he said, Premium Times reported. He added: "Mr President had always encouraged the all-year-around farming."
Kyari said the committee's report will go to a second committee, then to the Vice President and on to the President. The statement set no deadline, saying only that the committee should act immediately.
Moon said agricultural development is a shared responsibility of the federal, state and local governments, and that the gap between the three tiers must be closed. It is "very important to ensure that we are in harmony and synergy with what is happening at the state level," she said, according to the same statement.
Where Wheat Output Stands
The government says domestic wheat production has risen to about 420,000 metric tonnes a year. It also cites the commissioning of the Renewed Hope Agricultural Mechanization Programme with 2,000 tractors and implements, the Minister of State for Agriculture, Senator Aliyu Sabi Abdullahi, said in a World Food Day statement on October 16, 2026.
Food costs remain the main pressure on households. Food inflation stood at 19.59% year on year in September 2026, the National Bureau of Statistics said, Nairametrics reported.
FoodPrices Nigeria tracks flour, grains and eggs across Lagos markets. Faster action on wheat and livestock would show up there in the prices of bread flour and animal protein.
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