Nigerians urged to embrace farming to tackle food insecurity

CHAIRMAN, Governing Board of the Nakudu Institute of Agriculture, Birnin-Kudu, Professor Taoheed Adedoja, has called on Nigerians to take advantage of President Muhammadu Buhari’s people-oriented policies on agricultural development to embrace farming in order to achieve a reasonable level of food security in the country.

Adedoja, made the call during the  national seminar on Agriculture for Sustainability of Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) in the North East Nigeria, organised in Kano by Nakudu Institute of Agriculture, in collaboration with Coventry University, United Kingdom.

Professor Adedoja, noted: “The increase in food production in Nigeria cannot be done just by policy. It must be championed by Nigerians themselves and this can only be done by active involvement in agriculture.”

Adedoja, a former Minister of Youth and Sports and former Dean, Faculty of Education, Bayero University, Kano (BUK), also noted that  government and its policies alone could not achieve food security, without the active participation of private research institutions.

“We need private sector-based institutes that will conduct research which results will get to users such as the farmers, food processors, and others in the agricultural value chain.

“Nigerians are interested in farming; Nigerians are interested in food production. All they need is encouragement from government and I believe that the Buhari administration is one that is determined to increase food production by involving the people.”

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He further stated that: “We believe that for Nigeria’s economy to grow  the private sector will have to come on board. If you talk about food security in this country, it has always been government alone.

“If you look at the number of institutes of agriculture in Nigeria, most are government-supported, government-funded; but because of bureaucracy, the recourse of the research in the various government-owned research institutes have not found its way to the target users.

“So, as a result of that, the Nakudu Institute of Agriculture is set to break the ground for the agricultural revolution in Nigeria from the point of view of the private initiative.

“That is why we believe that this two-day national seminar will be one of the way of finding solution to the problems of the Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) in this country because it is not sufficient to give people food, but you must give them something that must sustain their lives; and that is the theme of this conference which is: Agriculture for the Sustainability of Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) in the North-East Nigeria.”

“The agro-research institutes in Nigeria are trying their best, but what I am saying is that because of bureaucracy, the private sector is coming in, and that is the reason this Institute was established to break new grounds in providing research results that will have the reflection of government policies and also ensure that the research results get to the users.” He concluded.

Earlier, the Proprietor of Nakudu Institute of Agriculture, Senator Sabo Mohammed Nakudu, who represented by Mr Mohammed Nakudu said: “The main aim of establishing Nakudu Institute of Agriculture is to encourage private individuals and entities to look at food production privately rather than being dependent on government agencies.”

Among the papers presented at the Seminar include a keynote address entitled: “Healing Land, Sustaining Lives: Enhancing the Ecological and Social Resilience of Communities in Forced Displacements,” by the Guest Speaker, Ms. Liliane Binego, of the Coventry University Research Centre for  Agroecology and Water Resilience, Coventry, United Kingdom.

Nigerian Tribune