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Stakeholder sets agenda for Tinubu on agric

By Gbenga Akinfenwa
10 March 2023   |   3:07 am
The former Chairman, Agric, Lagos Chamber of Commerce and Industry (LCCI) and Agriculturist, Mr. Wale Oyekoya has appealed to the president-elect, Bola Ahmed Tinubu to address the challenges affecting farmers in the country once he assumes office.

President-Elect Bola Tinubu

The former Chairman, Agric, Lagos Chamber of Commerce and Industry (LCCI) and Agriculturist, Mr. Wale Oyekoya has appealed to the president-elect, Bola Ahmed Tinubu to address the challenges affecting farmers in the country once he assumes office.

In a statement made available to The Guardian, Oyekoya said farmers across the country are waiting on the incoming administration with bated breath to address inherent problems limiting growth in the country’s agricultural sector.

He said: “Now that the 2023 presidential election is over, farmers across the country want the president-elect, Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s  “Renew Hope” agenda to address inherent problems limiting growth in the country’s agricultural sector.

“BAT’s Renew Hope in the next four years should record marginal progress which the outgoing administration failed to address – the fundamental issues that would drive growth.”

Oyekoya said farmers need irrigation, innovation, single-digit interest rate, infrastructure and mechanisation to change the fortunes of Nigeria’s economy, employment, food provision and other spin-offs. 

“We cannot grow our agriculture using cutlass and hoes anymore. Mechanisation and irrigation are vital if we are going to feed ourselves. Data from the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) shows that growth in the agricultural sector had been on the decline since the first quarter of 2015, with marginal growth recorded only in the fourth quarter of the same year.

“The inability of the government to provide critical infrastructure, such as motorable roads in rural communities, mechanisation and irrigation facilities, to aid all-year farming is a major factor responsible for the persistent decline in agric growth in recent years.”

He called on the president-elect to focus on provision of tractors for mechanisation to attain food sufficiency. “Nigeria with over 220 million people is one of the least mechanised farming countries in the world with a tractor density of 0.27hp/hectare, far below the Food And Agriculture Organisation (FAO) 1.5hp/hectare recommended tractor density for Africa and other developing countries.

“BAT hard-won victory was a testimony of Nigerians’ confidence in his ability and there is need for him not to disappoint the country. Another major problem facing smallholder farmers is the lack of adequate food storage and processing facilities.

“Most of the current interventions funds such as Commercial Agriculture Credit Scheme (CACS) and Anchor Borrowers Programme (ABP), were anti-farmers, as real farmers are not benefiting from it as the political and portfolio farmers benefitted from these funds.”

He added that more attention should be focused on extension services delivery, “invite critical stakeholders, fight food insecurity insurgency, introduce formidable policies and not summersault policies, more funding for research institutes to aid productivity, more farmlands for farmers with title and reintroduction of price marketing board.”

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