There are hopes that agriculture will create more jobs than any other sector engaging people in gainful activities from the grassroots to urban centres. Over 3.5 million jobs are targeted, according to Minister of Agriculture Dr. Akinwumi Adesina.
“The focus is to ensure food security, reduce expenditure of foreign exchange on food imports, diversify the economy, generate foreign exchange and create jobs,” he said, highlighting the prospects of the Federal Government’s agric transformation agenda.
Under the plan, the Goodluck Jonathan administration, working in conjunction with the states, is focusing on food and cash crops, seeking to increase their production.
Adesina has taken the agenda round the country.
In Ogun State, he warned against hijacking fertilizers meant for farmers, saying the Federal Government has ensured that such farm inputs get to farmers directly, rather than merchants who sell them at huge profits to the growers. Adesina addressed cocoa producers in the Southwest, telling them that the Federal Government has worked out a plan to ensure fertilizers get to them directly.
In Taraba State, the Minister launched improved cassava stems for planting, urging farmers to make optimal use of the facilities they received in order to boost food production not only in the state but also in the entire country. The state is said to have remarkable potential in cassava production.
In Ekiti, where Adesina also visited, Governor Kayode Fayemi has lifted before a crowd an impressive, freshly harvested bunch of cassava tubers to project the state’s potentials as well as the agric reform.
In Anambra, such collaboration promises to enhance the plan of Governor Peter Obi who has covered much ground in the sector.
The government’s Growth Enhancement Support scheme seeks to maximise the production of notable food and cash crops, such as cocoa, millet, sorghum, cassava, yams, wheat and cotton, among others, so as to shore up Nigeria’s food supplies.
The proper coordination of these activities will provide lots of jobs in the country, said Mr. Oronto Douglas, the President’s Special Adviser on Research Documentation and Strategy. There will be jobs for unemployed youths, he added.
“Agriculture will become the biggest employer of labour in the country,” he said in Lagos at the presentation of a book documenting the government’s agric reform and other gains.
Under the plan, moribund or neglected industries like rice mills are receiving fresh impetus across the states, with the prospects of remarkably changing unemployment and food profiles in the country.
Adesina said: “The agenda is focused on major policy reforms to eliminate corruption in the seed and fertilizer sectors, improve the functioning of market institutions, establish staple crop processing zones to attract private sector into areas of high production to reduce post-harvest losses, add value to locally produced crops and foster rural economic growth. In addition, the agenda includes improvement in rural infrastructure and access of farmers to financial services and markets.”
Part of the agric plan involves giving farmers facilities and improving rural infrastructure.
