Investing in Commercial Farming Will Eliminate Revenue Issues -VP Osinbajo
Nigeria’s Vice President, Prof Yemi Osinbajo has said to easily eliminate revenue issues and raise contributions into the government treasury, the country must devote deliberate attention to commercial farming.
He said this when he met with a delegation from the Development Agenda for Western Nigeria (DAWN) Commission, at the Presidential Villa, Abuja.
Specifically, Osinbajo noted that the hard work and dedication of all stakeholders in the sector would boost resource mobilisation and yield the desired result.
The Vice President, who spoke after the Commission’s presentation on the framework for sustainable agricultural transformation in the states,
“Agriculture can be the solution to a lot of our (Internally Generated Revenue (IGR) needs, and a lot of our resource needs; it has been proven so many times that it is possible. “The truth of the matter is that the difference between then and now is the political will. There is no question at all that there is far more information today than there was then but someone has to have the will to do it. “There is no question at all, that any part of Nigeria if there is sufficient dedication and hard work, can feed the entire country, there are smaller countries not up to the size of one state in Nigeria that are producing enough and exporting products to other parts of the world.”
The Vice President acknowledged the importance of private sector collaboration in transforming the agriculture sector but stressed the need for stakeholders to focus on research and development, saying the progress made by some countries of the world, especially in the area of commercial farming has been hinged on research.
“Obviously, what will take us out of the woods and make us relevant in terms of export and even in terms of satisfying local demands is commercial farming. There must be a way of perfecting the value chain and ensure that the value chain works,”
On his part, the Director-General of DAWN, Seye Oyeleye, said the commission has developed blueprints for the development of the health and education sectors in the six states of the South-West region. Furthermore, he cited the revitalisation of cocoa production and the framework for sustainable agricultural transformation in the region, among achievements recorded by the commission in its nine years of existence. Share this:
source Agro Nigeria:
