By Bolaji Okunola
Lagos State Commissioner for Agriculture, Ruth Abisola Olusanya and others stakeholders have urged the federal, state and local governments to change their approach to agric sector, urging them to make it more attractive, so that many youths can develop interest in the sector.
Olusanya, Gbolagade Ayoola, Olajide Bashorun and others made the plea while speaking as guest speakers during a programme organised by United Action for Change (UAC).
The commissioner said the perception around agriculture and food production is not encouraging, and that the sector has been relegated to the background, that is why many people are not attracted to the sector.
Olusanya said unless Nigerians change their perception about the Agric sector in Nigeria, it will be difficult to improve the sector.
“There is the need for mindset changing, people are not attracted to agriculture,no role model that is in the agric sector that will attract people into the agriculture sector,” she said.
Citing the example of Ghana, she said farmers are well celebrated over there and that was why food production is on the increase over there.
The commissioner said, Lagos State government is aware of most of the challenges confronting the agriculture sector and steps are being taken to address them. She said the state government was also working at turning one of the agric institutes in the state to a research institute for agric and it will come into being by 2027.
She said there was commitment on the part of president Bola Tinubu administration to change the narrative in the agric sector to a better one.
Bashorun said the challenges facing farmers in Nigeria are enormous and as such it is affecting the farmers not to give optimum output.
He said part of the challenges were security challenges, which scare farmers from visiting their farms as at when due, lack of access road to transport their farm produce and no access to loan facilities.
“Something should be done by the government to mitigate the problems facing Farmers in Nigeria,there is the need for climate smart agriculture.
“Sourcing of credit finance for farmers is important. There is the need to package agriculture finance to farmers,” he said.
Contributing to the topic, Ayoola, who joined the programme through zoom, said why the agric sector is not advancing is because of failure to implement government policy.
He, therefore, advocated a legislation that will criminalise failure to implement government policy, “there is the need to sensitise a backbone legislation against policy implementation.
“There is the need for a composite solution that will address policy failure. Why policy failure persists is because there is no consequence.”