Gov. Aregbesola says agriculture remains only antidote to economy crisis


 Gov. Rauf Aregbesola of Osun on Thursday said development of agriculture remains the only solution for the economic downturn the country is going through.
Aregbesola, who made the remarks at a meeting with Farmers' Association in Erin-Ijesha, Oriade Local Government Area, Osun, said the culture of free money has gone forever in the country.
According to him, for the country to come out of its current economic doldrums, there must be a total shift from oil money, which in effect has contributed to total neglect of agriculture.
"Today, we have seen the effect of rent economy that the country has been running for the past half a century.
"With the frittering away of the nation's resources by the immediate past government and the drastic reduction of crude oil price at the international market, the country's economy just went into recession.
"To come out of this economic logjam, we need to embark on massive agricultural practice.
"Agriculture used to be our economic mainstay during and shortly after independence.
“The discovery of oil in commercial quantity shifted our attention from agriculture to petrodollars.
"The cumulative effects of abandonment of agriculture and the culture of waste are what we are witnessing today," the governor said.
Aregbesola promised that government would do everything within its power and resources to assist in boosting farmers’ production and harvesting capacity.
He stated that government would continue to provide soft loans as well as make chemicals and fertiliser available to the farmers at subsidised rate.
According to him, farming is the backbone of any strong and developed nation.
“We must stop our heavy reliance on imported foods. We should be able to feed ourselves as a nation.
"More than ever before, our government is ready to help farmers in the state in all areas they want to practice, be it food or cash crop, poultry and the rest," Aregbesola said.
Responding on behalf of the association, Mr Moses Adekunle, urged government to continue to support the farmers by providing high-yielding crop seedling, chemicals and fertilisers as affordable prices.
He appealed to the government to speed up its rural-urban road opening, saying that lack of access roads to the markets after harvest is a major problem farmers are facing.
"If there are good roads, farm produce will reach the targeted destination on time and the kind of waste that we witness every year will reduce," Adekunle said.

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