AFAN urges president-elect to use agriculture to drive nation’s economy

The farmers said doing so became necessary in view of the dwindling revenue of the country, occasioned by falling oil price.The AFAN, speaking through a member of its technical committee, Dr. Tunde Arosanyin, weekend, in Lokoja, said agriculture remained the most vibrant option for the country’s development.Arosanyin said the president-elect should make adequate budgetary provision […]

The farmers said doing so became necessary in view of the dwindling revenue of the country, occasioned by falling oil price.
The AFAN, speaking through a member of its technical committee, Dr. Tunde Arosanyin, weekend, in Lokoja, said agriculture remained the most vibrant option for the country’s development.
Arosanyin said the president-elect should make adequate budgetary provision to the agricultural sector in order to make the sector attractive to the farmers in a more enterprising way.
“President-elect, Muhammedu Buhari, must ensure that the agric sector gets the basic budgetary requirement. We must respect the 2003 Maputo declaration which earmarked 3 percent of an african country’s annual budget to agriculture, since we are signatory to it. The incoming administration must also make the sector attractive to the farmers.”
Arosanyin, who was a former financial secretay of AFAN, said farming should not only be a source of feeding, adding that it should be taken as a business that can generate income for the country.
He said that fish and timber, abundant in Nigeria, were in high demand in the international market, pointing out that there were many ECOWAS initiatives and programes that the country can use to improve its agriculture.
“No country can be successful with a monolithic economy. Nigeria must look into other sectors to rejuvenate the economy and tackle the high rate of unemployment. If not, we will continue to wallow in this socio-economic problem.”
Arosayin called on Buhari to look at the pitfalls that characterised the agricultural transformation initiative of the outgoing administration of President Goodluck Jonathan.
“The Agricultural Trans-formation Agenda, ATA, of President Jonathan was good at policy level, but poor in its implementation. There are laudable initiatives in the ATA, especially the cassava bread initiative, dry rice plantation and the crop processing zone initiated across the country.”
He said the president-elect, being a former herdsman, should establish cattle grazing zones across the country, “because doing so will engender peace between the herdsmen and farmers across the country.”