Industrialist calls for review of agric policy to boost economy



Awka- AN industrialist, Mr. Godwin Ezeemo has called on the Federal Government to review the country’s agricultural policy as part of measures to diversify the country’s economy.
Speaking in an interview in Awka, Ezeemo recalled that most of the investments in the country during the first republic were made possible with revenue from agricultural produce, like cocoa, palm oil, groundnuts, among others, adding that with the revenue from oil dropping seriously, there was need to return to agriculture.
According to him, Nigerian famers needed to be empowered to show more interest in agriculture, argueing that this was the right time to embark on the agricultural reforms as it had dawned on Nigerians that the era of oil boom was over.
Speaking specifically on cocoa which used to be the economic mainstay of the Western part of the country, Ezeemo said: “Before now, Nigeria was occupying the number one position in the world as cocoa producer but this was abandoned in the wake of oil boom. But I believe that we can place priority on cocoa production again and reclaim our position in the world.
“All hope of Nigeria being giant in production of cocoa again will not be difficult to achieve as cocoa farmers associations that were formed during the first republic still exist and, as such they could be utilized in gathering all peasant cocoa farmers and skilled agriculturalists for exchange of ideas and charting a way forward.”

He said that placing emphasis on cocoa production in the country again would help create more jobs for the teeming unemployed youths , bring back to life moribund industries that produce various beverages with cocoa as raw materials and even give room for export, thereby increasing the revenue for the country.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Tomato disease outbreak: Institute appeals for research funding

The National Horticultural Research Institute, Ibadan, has appealed for funding to carry out research and create awareness on the tuta absoluta pest on tomatoes. The Institute’s Head of Vegetable Programme, Dr Olagorite Adetula, told the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Ibadan on Friday that there was an urgent need to tackle the problem to save the economy. Adetula said the institute needed money to do surveillance survey of the pest/damage, ascertain the impact of the damage and proffer solution for eradicating the pest. She appealed to the Federal Government to help the institute get pheromones to lure and trap the pests and distribute to farmers. ``Spraying insecticides is not the best, the pest has high production rate, some of them can escape while spraying it and they will be resistant to the insecticide thereby causing us more cost. ``The pheromones can be used for six to eight weeks before changing it, it is very effective, the pest has short life cycle, wit
Read more

10,000 women farmers to be engaged in ECOWAS rice project – official

Image
 Mr Richard Olafare, the President, Seed Entrepreneurs Association of Nigeria (SEEDAN) says 10,000 women will be engaged in the recently inaugurated Rice Seed Up-Scaling Project. This is contained in a presentation on the project made available to the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Abuja on Friday. Olafare said 8,000 youths would also be engaged in the scaling project. According to him, the number of women and youths represented 50 per cent and 40 per cent respectively of the 20,000 farmers that will participate in the project. NAN reports that the project is an initiative of the West Africa Seed Programme (WASP) in support of the ECOWAS Rice Offensive Programme that was inaugurated in 2014. Among other objectives, it is targeting the production of 60,000 metric tonnes of paddy rice for Nigeria by December 2017, using 1,200 certified seeds. The project is being implemented by SEEDAN in collaboration with the West and Central Africa Council for Agricultural Re
Read more

NEGPRO project can create more jobs with inclusion of meat production— Badmus

•Tuns Farm leads food safety, quality system audit The Chairman , Tuns Farms Nigeria, Asiwaju Olatunde Badmus, has disclosed that the proposed one million jobs expected to be created through the National Egg Production Scheme (NEGPRO) can be doubled if extended to meat production. He made this known when a team from the office of the Vice President, Federal Ministries of Agriculture, Health and Education at the company’s headquarters in Osogbo, the Osun state capital recently. Olatunde Badmus, while sharing the company’s experience on chicken inclusion in the Osun state’s school meal program which the company has been handling since the introduction of the school feeding program four years ago, said they can achieve so much more in terms of job creation through meat production “As we speak, six state governors among who are Kebbi and Borno, have signalled their government’s preparedness to look into this and have invited TUNS farm to their states to discuss modalities for
Read more