Varsity don calls on FG, states to give priority to agriculture
Phillips Nto, a lecturer at Michael Okpara University of Agriculture, Umudike, has tasked President Bola Tinubu and the 36 governors on the need to pay more attention to agriculture for accelerated economic development and food security in the country.
Nto gave the task on the heels of rendering the scorecard of their midterm in the office.
Nto believes that to end the current hunger in the land, all tiers of the government must take agriculture seriously.
Nto, who is the director, Agribusiness Incubation Centre (ABIC) at MOUAU, noted that a study of the midterm report of the president and the governors showed that they were not actually prioritising agriculture in their developmental initiatives.
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“The most important need of the average Nigerian now is food. Unfortunately, the prices are currently high. Well-paved roads and bridges can not take the place of food. This is one area that should take a chunk of our national and state budgets,” he said.
The ABIC boss, who admitted that the governments had done averagely in infrastructure, especially roads, harped on the need to focus more on agriculture to make the infrastructure meaningful.
“The simplest economic theory is a scale of preference, which gives rise to opportunity cost, therefore, we need to find a way to support farmers for massive production of food to curb food insecurity,” he said.
Nto, a former Commissioner for Finance in Abia State, said that it was understandable that most state governments were embarking on projects that yield revenue for them while neglecting agriculture.
“But I can tell you that it is a misplacement of priority. When you fund agriculture and its value chain, you will also get revenue twofold while at the same time taming inflation and food insecurity, he submitted.
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He said the importation of some food items to force down their prices was only a temporary solution to the problem.
According to him, apart from hurting local farmers, the importation of food is a short-term measure that would never solve the problem.
He rather suggested that agricultural machinery be imported to aid local farmers in food production, while value chain addition is pursued as an all-around solution to both food insecurity and the wobbling economy.
Nto urged the citizens to assist the government in boosting food production by engaging in farming activities.
He said that ABIC, as a body, is aggressively embarking upon enlightenment on modern farming techniques and assisting local farmers to plant high-yielding seedlings as its contribution towards the attainment of food security in Nigeria.
