The founder of Afe Babalola University, Ado-Ekiti (ABUAD), Aare Afe Babalola, has said the Federal Government can encourage farming in the country by giving successful practicing farmers national awards instead of limiting it to politicians.

Babalola, who stated this at the grand finale of the year 2023 Afe Babalola Agricultural Exhibition, which took place at the ABUAD campus, noted that the current situation where politicians, especially governors, are considered will not encourage ordinary Nigerians to excel.

The legal luminary gave deserving farmers drawn from the 16 councils of the state a total of N11.2 million cash prices for their outstanding performance.

The ABUAD Chancellor, who said the goal of the yearly agriculture exhibition was to revive the interest of ordinary man in farming, urged the Federal Government to direct Bank of Industry (BoI) and the Bank of Agriculture (BoA) to assist farmers’ cooperative societies with credit facilities.

As parts of ways to revive agriculture, Babalola said universities and other institutions where agriculture is taught should reduce their fees by 50 per cent, “as done in ABUAD”, saying this will encourage more students to study agriculture.

“The monthly subvention to the state government should include allocation specially meant for the farmers in the local council. Councils should form cooperative societies for farmers to enable them access such funds,” he said.

Underscoring why government should give better attention to farmers, the legal luminary said, “farmers are going through very difficult time at the moment, owing to the recent removal of fuel subsidy and suffocating loan conditions by banks.”

While saying the era of cutlasses and hoes must stop, he asked, “how many of us in Ekiti can buy modern equipment for farming? The modern equipment enables rich and highly educated people to engage in large scale farming, whereas in Nigeria, we continue to use cutlasses and hoes, thereby, engaging in small scale farming. This must stop.”

In his remarks, the Elemure of Emure -Ekiti, Oba Emmanuel Adebowale Adebayo, who spoke on behalf of other monarchs at the event, regretted that despite the fact that God gave the country fertile land and population, it could not feed itself not to talk of feeding Africa.

He urged the youth to stop chasing white-collar jobs and embrace farming, saying that agriculture has value chain that could be exploited.