Agriculture can solve insurgency, kidnappings –Committee

This was revealed yesterday while the delegates debated on the report earlier presented by the committee chairman, Umaru Muhammad Hadejia. The committee believed that agriculture has the potential to compete favourably and is much more environmentally sustainable than the oil and gas sector.“It is also the most viable way to stem the current large scale rural-urban […]

This was revealed yesterday while the delegates debated on the report earlier presented by the committee chairman, Umaru Muhammad Hadejia.
 The committee believed that agriculture has the potential to compete favourably and is much more environmentally sustainable than the oil and gas sector.
“It is also the most viable way to stem the current large scale rural-urban youth migration and thus prove the most viable solution to permanently deal with the problems of insurgency, armed robbery and kidnapping currently bedeviling the nation,” the committee said.
The report is an assessment of Nigeria’s agricultural and water resources policies especially as they relate to food security and the refocusing of agriculture as a business for the creation of jobs and wealth.
 The report recommended that particular attention be focused on increasing agricultural productivity by paying close attention to the selection of adequate and appropriate land for agricultural production which would lead to meaningful rapid and increased crop productivity.
It said attention should also be paid to immediate extensive needs assessment for the soil and water laboratories available in Nigeria so as to promote accurate soil testing and consequent appropriate fertilizer, liming and water quality assessments for increased productivity in rain-fed and irrigated agriculture in the country.
To address the current critical shortage of manpower in the sector, the committee demanded immediate passage of the Bill for the Establishment of the Nigerian Soil Science Institute which it said is pending in the National Assembly; it said the institute when established would provide leadership in regulating the training and professional practice of soil science in the country.
Describing land as the most fundamental asset in agricultural practice, the committee said accessibility to land has been limited by the Land Use Act whose presence in the constitution it described as a disincentive to agricultural development “because it tends to discourage investments in land.”
It emphasized the need for appropriate review and amendment of the Land Use Act; an issue that has re-echoed repeatedly in the conference and whose resolution is currently pending.
The committee lamented the dearth of qualified and trained manpower to adequately drive the policies and programmes in both sectors of agriculture and water resources; and declared that Nigeria is facing system failure owing to inadequate manpower.
The conference will today consider all the recommendations of the committee, amend some, adopt some and reject others based on majority decision.