Expert tasks govt on development of agric sector

Urges youths to develop interest in agriculture

From Bamigbola Gbolagunte, Akure

Former Provost of the Federal College of Agriculture, Akure, Dr Samson Odedina, has said that for Nigeria to be free from unemployment, food shortages, and other challenges confronting her, the nation’s agricultural sector needs to be well developed.

Odedina, who was also a former Commissioner for Agriculture in Ogun State, said agriculture has the potential to solve the challenges associated with the country’s foreign exchange.

The former commissioner, who spoke with newsmen in Akure on Friday, declared that the country will benefit significantly if the agricultural sector is well developed.

He therefore encouraged the youths to venture into agriculture, which he said is the immediate solution to the problem of unemployment, which many of them are suffering from.

Odedina said he had been a successful farmer before his appointment as a commissioner, stressing that his interest in agriculture has yielded tremendous results for him.

The former Rector of Moshood Abiola Polytechnic, Abeokuta, Ogun State, said it was a normal practice in the state for the commissioner for agriculture to take government land when leaving office but he did not seek nor take any land from the government following his success in private practice.

He informed that all the parcels of land he is currently using for his private agribusiness were purchased by him before he was appointed as a commissioner.

“When providence led me to Ogun State in 2018 as Rector of Moshood Abiola Polytechnic and later as Honourable Commissioner for Agriculture, I was already an established farmer. My crops and livestock were thriving, and I had become part of the farming and hunting community,” he said.

“This experience served me well in office. Notably, I didn’t seek or receive government land for personal farming. I instead focused on the job. To God’s glory, it’s recorded that, perhaps for the first time, a Commissioner for Agriculture didn’t apply or was given government land for personal farming,” he added.