Stakeholders want Buhari to sustain ATA

Stakeholders in Kwara State have urged President Muhammadu Buhari to sustain the Agricultural Transformation Agenda (ATA) of the immediate past administration. The stakeholders who spoke at a town hall meeting and workshop in Ilorin warned against policy inconsistency which would blight the gains recorded in the sector. The stakeholders’ meeting was convened by AgroNigeria Magazine. […]

Stakeholders in Kwara State have urged President Muhammadu Buhari to sustain the Agricultural Transformation Agenda (ATA) of the immediate past administration.
The stakeholders who spoke at a town hall meeting and workshop in Ilorin warned against policy inconsistency which would blight the gains recorded in the sector.
The stakeholders’ meeting was convened by AgroNigeria Magazine.
Chief executive officer, AgroNigeria, Mr. Richard-Mark Mbaram and the state chairman, Agriculture and Allied Employees Union of Nigeria, Mr. David Ehindero, urged the government to ensure more commitment to agricultural development.
Mbaram appealed to President Buhari not to delay appointment of the minister for agriculture.
He said: “There should be no policy somersault. We have the Agricultural Transformation Agenda which is a well thought out strategy for reforms in agriculture.
“It has worked for the past four years and it is the basis for which we feel that the new government should build its agriculture.
Implementation of it should be strictly in accordance with what is captured.
“We do need an agriculture minister like yesterday. Agriculture is a different ministry from others. You could afford not have other ministers but you cannot function effectively with a permanent secretary as the leader for the agric ministry.”
Ehindero on his part insisted that government has remained “the number one to 10 problem of agriculture in Nigeria”. He warned against politicizing the sector which he noted was strategic for national transformation.
“The government should not make agriculture a political jamboree.
Government should focus on areas that Nigeria has comparative advantage which is agriculture.
“Government should ensure that the good policies of the past administration should be continued. Agricultural personnel should be well taken care of in terms of tax relief, loans and incentives,” Ehindero said.