Nigeria not serious to make farming viable – Aregbesola

The Osun State Governor, Mr Rauf Aregbesola, says that Nigeria is not serious about making farming a viable venture. 
 

He called for ban on exportation of primary farm produce to improve local production and enhance value chains of the country’s agricultural investments.

Speaking at the annual conference of the Nigerian Guild of Editors with the theme: Economic Diversification: Agriculture as option for a prosperous Nigeria, Aregbesola said that only innovative ventures in agriculture could make farm produce to be converted into secondary products.  

The governor said that government must make agriculture attractive to young Nigerians for economic diversification to occur.
 

“We should stop exporting primary products and start adding value to them,” he said. 
“The value of a kilogramme of exported cocoa beans increases 5,000 per cent by the time it comes back as chocolate.”
 

Charging Nigerian agricultural scientists, technologists, nutritionists and other allied experts to be innovative, Aregbesola said that for ages, Nigerians have failed to improve local varieties of foods.
“Our foods have remained the same from time immemorial,” he said. “It is the same type of foods we derive from our crops in the past that we still do now. Nutritionists, food scientists and food technologists should find better uses for our crops.” 
The governor said it became imperative for Nigeria’s agriculture to be channeled towards satisfying local needs, not what it can export.
 

“The orientation of our agriculture towards producing raw materials, especially cash crops, for the industries in Europe and the America must be reversed. Our agriculture must be producing what we can use here in Nigeria.
 

“Agriculture is needed primarily for food production. Only well fed people could drive economic development. Good nutrition is the primary basis of good health. Good nutrition, therefore, drives productivity in two ways-through good health and unbounded energy and confidence that come from it.”

http://www.dailytrust.com.ng/news/agriculture/nigeria-not-serious-to-make-farming-viable-aregbesola/158573.html