AGRICULTURE minister, Dr. Akinwumi Ayodeji Adesina, has appealed to state governments to join hands with him in revamping the agricultural sector in the country in line with the transformation agenda of the federal government so as to restore the agricultural sector of the country back to its former glory.
He emphasized that in revolutionizing agriculture in the country, agriculture should be a business for farmers to benefit from and not a way of life.
He made this call recently in Ibadan, at the International Institute of Tropical Agriculture (IITA) during a visit with his minister of State, Bukar Tijani, and the Executive Secretary, Agriculture Research Council of Nigeria (ARCN), Professor Yusuf Abubakar.
Dr Adesina lamented that ?it?s a pity that we Nigerians are in the museum of poverty in the midst of plenty. Nigerian farmers are abandoned.? He expressed therefore the ?need to turn Nigeria from being an importer of food to an exporter,? saying ?we are making farmers in other nations rich while our own farmers are poor.? To him, ?repositioning is needed to get the lost glory of Agriculture back.?
Adesina also visited the Institute of Agricultural Research and Training (IART) and the governor of Oyo State, urging the government of the state and other governors in the south-west to quickly revitalise the nation?s agricultural sector so that the country could once again be recognised as one of the leading food producing nations of the world.
In his welcome address at the governor?s office, Agodi Secretariat, Ibadan, Senator Abiola Ajimobi assured the minister of his administration?s readiness to support the federal government in revamping the country?s agricultural sector.
According to him, ?it is a sad story that agriculture which used to be a major backbone of the country?s economy has been totally relegated to the background. .. 70 per cent of Nigerians are engaged in agriculture but there is no value attach to it. There has been inconsistency in the government; also, there is lack of encouragement and enabling environment for our farmers to operate. It?s disheartening that all our money is spent on what we can afford to produce.?
The Minister reeled, in what he described as a carefully packaged four-point approach by the federal government and the Ministry of Agriculture, said there are plans to start from the rural areas and move up.
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