Expert tells president-elect, Tinubu, to focus on agriculture, ministry in first 100 days

Former Commissioner for Agriculture in Ekiti State, Dr. Olabode Adetoyi, has urged the President-elect, Bola Tinubu, to focus on agriculture and the Federal Ministry of Agriculture in a bid to harness its potentials.

The Agriculture expert, who gave this advice while speaking to journalists recently, said Tinubu should review all existing policies on agriculture and determine the hindrances preventing the implementation, even as it is imperative to evaluate enabling laws and mandates of agencies under FMARD.

Adetoyi said Tinubu should bring up a comprehensive paper on the way forward on agricultural production for executive actions and identify existing farm settlements across the country and take census of the occupants.

Adetoyi, who is the Chairman Youth in Commercial Agriculture Development Ekiti State, asked the president-elect to identify constraints of occupants of the farm settlement and develop immediate relieve package at short and long run to eliminate the constraints.

He said FMARD and NDE (under Federal Ministry of Labor) should open collation of citizen (youths under 40years) who are interested in agriculture through data collection form (simple Google form) along geopolitical zones.

He added that the collation should be opened for 21days for first batch- target 60,000 participants (10,000 participant per geopolitical zone) and open up farm support model for youth farmers across the country through input supply and output take up model.