FABDA Boss Calls for Restructuring of Agriculture Ministries

The managing director of Anambra State Fisheries and Aquaculture Business Development Agency (FABDA), Emeka Illoghalu, said there is a serious need to restructure agriculture ministries, in at the state and federal levels in the country to encourage entreprenurship and SMEs to do well.

According to Illogbhalu, the agriculture ministries in both federal and state levels should give room for innovations and inventions to thrive and expand entrepreneurship.

He argued that Agric Ministries should be unbundled that if that was not done, a lot of talents and opportunities will be wasted in the country.

He also said, Anambra State has taken the lead in unbundling the activities of commodities within its Ministry of Agriculture and that a clear example is the establishment of Fisheries and Aquaculture Business Development Agency (FABDA).

“The ministries of agriculture are not structured to produce entrepreneurs. Everybody knows that, and it is not in contest, all this while, the government and others have been saying that agriculture should become business.

“Clearly, something is still missing, and as much as we say agriculture should be business, the next step is matching them with the existing agricultural commodities so that we will be able to have value and have outcomes which will increase the economy of our state and our country.

“We need to take the next step of taking another commodity. I mentioned cassava. It could be rice; it could be maize, it could be soya beans, it could be any other commodity.”