An agriculturist and former vice national president of the Poultry Association of Nigeria, Folorunso Ogunnaike, has called on the incoming Federal Government to reposition Nigeria’s agricultural sector through mechanisation and intervention in the local production of required agricultural equipment.
Ogunnaike said through this the sector will turn to a goldmine in the face of the dwindling national economy.
Ogunnaike, who is also the chairman of Fol-Hope Limited, says in Ibadan, the Oyo State capital, that the agricultural sector is capable of bailing Nigeria out of its present economic predicament “provided the government can checkmate corruption that had already eaten deep into the nation’s fabrics.
“If the agricultural products can generate much and we can spend such judiciously and prudently, then it can still sustain the nation’s economy. What we are saying in essence is that the government should reduce corruption to the barest minimum.”
But he emphasises that “the fact remains that resources we are going to generate from agricultural production can never sustain the level of corruption we are practicing in Nigeria.”
According to him, the expectations of Nigerian farmers from the incoming government include the provision of regular electricity supply, at the same time, we need to go into technological development, a situation whereby we shall be in a position to manufacture at least 60 to 70 percent of our farm equipment.
“If we continue to depend on importation at inflated or cut throat prices, by the time we are going to recoup the money invested on such equipment, the equipment are no more available for use. So, therefore, we should be in a position to manufacture and produce farm equipment and stop depending on importation of virtually everything,’ he says.
He points out that “what we now need in Nigeria is mechanised farming as against the archaic days of hoes and cutlasses farming, which is too tedious.” For mechanised farming to endure in Nigeria, we needed to go into full-scale production of farm equipment locally.
“This is where technological development comes in; we should try as much as possible to be manufacturers, producers and exporters and try as much as possible to develop our own technology so that we can reduce dependence on borrowed technology.
“In achieving all these, government must be well determined and strive to do everything possible to revolutionise the energy sector as a matter of topmost priority, this is highly desirable as no aspect of the nation’s economy can prosper without having regular electricity supply,” he says.
He however notes that regular electricity supply is the bedrock of everything, saying “it is the pillar behind everything.”
Remi Feyisipo
(BusinessDayOnline)
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