President Goodluck Jonathan has said that in the past three years his administration has been engaged on a carefully designed and implemented agricultural transformation agenda.
This, he said has led to the production of 21 million metric tons of food in three years and has created a buffer and mitigated the impact of the devaluation on food prices.
Jonathan stated this at the launch of the Youth Employment in Agriculture Programme (YEAP) and the Fund for Agricultural Finance in Nigeria (FAFIN),at the banquet hall of the presidential villa.
The President said, the Youth Employment in Agriculture Program(YEAP), has been designed to create a new generation of 750,000 young commercial farmers and agribusiness leaders (Nagropreneurs) that will make Nigeria’s agriculture more efficient, profitable and competitive. He added that youths will “become the CEOs of their own farms and agribusinesses, create jobs in the rural areas and reverse the trend of high rural to urban migration. They will help to change the mindset of the younger generation on agriculture”.
According President Jonathan, his administration’s reform in agriculture has reduced food import from N1.1 trillion in 2009 to N624 billion by December of 2013. He said over 14 million farmer have received their subsidized farm inputs through the e-wallet system, which he described as the backbone of a more modern agricultural sector. Over 14 million farmers have received their subsidized farm inputs through the e-wallet system.
The President said over $5.6 billion of new private sector investments have also come into the agricultural sector, which clearly shows that local and foreign businesses see Nigeria’s agricultural sector as very viable for investments, adding “Agriculture has become the new wealth sector for Nigeria”.
“Focusing on programs that will engage our teeming youths in profitable and viable economic activities along the agricultural value chains, including commercial farming, processing, value addition, logistics, transport and marketing of value added agricultural products. They will not just take agriculture as a way of life, they will run agriculture as a business.
“I am confident that several young millionaires and even billionaires of Nigeria will come out of the agriculture sector. But before we can successfully attract a lot of the youth into the agriculture sector, we must replace the hoes and cutlasses with modern farm machinery. Agriculture should not be synonymous with hard labour or rural life,” he said.
In his remarks, the Minister of Agriculture, Akinwunmi Adeshina said, agriculture has created the buffet to safeguard the economy of the country. According to him, “Think of endless possibilities when you think of agriculture in Nigeria. It is so attractive today that Aliko Dangote has invested $.2.5 but we must attract younger Dangote today that is why we are reforming the sector.
“Mr. President you don’t talk much but you do much. As oil price falls, agriculture will become Nigeria’s new oil. In agriculture lies Nigeria’s future”, he said.
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