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Okwe Obi, Abuja
The Federal Government, yesterday, admonished the youths to deepen their interest in farming before struggling to occupy political positions.
Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development, Audu Ogbeh, stated this yesterday, in Abuja, at the signing of Memorandum of Understanding between Nigeria Agricultural Mechanisation and Equipment Leasing Company (NAMEL) and MANTRAC Nigeria Limited, to open up 500, 000 hectares of unused land to boost food sufficiency.
Ogbeh, noted that the youth should cash in on the partnership to secure lands bearing in mind that the onus of feeding the nation lies squarely on them.
Represented by the Director General, Office of the Minister, Victor Mayomi, he said: “I employ our youth to take advantage this project. Youth should come into agriculture to take advantage of the project bearing in mind the responsibility of feeding the nation will increasingly depend on them from now into the nearest future.
“Youth should not only be interested in taking over from politicians let them go to the field and take over it first. And when they can feed us we will be encouraged to entrust our destiny to them.”
Meanwhile, NAMEL’s Chief Executive Officer, Dr Ahmed Adekunle, pointed out that 13, 000 hectares would be carried out in each states and the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) from the over 47 million hectares of unused land in the country.
Adekunle added that the project “is to de-stump at 1, 000,000 hectares of poorly cleared and non tractable land; to help improve soil fertility for farmers; increase annual food production by at least 2,500, 000 metric tons annual for a period of five years.
He noted that the project is “structured to complement and optimise government efforts and resources in land development using a cost split mechanism support smallholder farmers and youth empowerment programmes while creating a flexible investment window for medium and large scale primary production investor to open more land with little initial cost.”
The CEO further lamented that efforts to mechanise lands are, sometimes thwarted due to stumps, roots and stones, adding that it “cost more than N15, 000 to N600, 000 to properly develop one hectare of land from the Savannah vegetation of the north down to mangrove and rain forest of the South.”
