Agricultural Reform in Nigeria
Before technology arrived and oil was discovered in Nigeria, Nigerians survived mainly on substantial farming. Nigerians survived on agriculture.
With the discovery of oil, Nigeria has been given another potentially profitably source of income. Oil exportation.
Till now, Nigeria is the fifth largest exporter of oil in the world and as a country, she has thrived on it. Subsequently it seemed that major agricultural pursuits had been abandoned, by the government and also by the people. Many young minds move to the cities to earn minimum wage, surrounded by substandard living conditions. Especially in states like Lagos, to get good accommodation in Lagos is a struggle considering that you can even afford it. Sometimes you have to settle on housing in Lagos that is more than forty miles away from their work place. People it seems are overlooking the gold mines that they walk on everyday; the soil.
But no longer!
The Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development, Dr. Akinwumi Adesina, has said the Federal Government will soon release N10 billion for cassava bread development fund and to further boost the cassava production.
This great news was revealed to Nigerians when the Senior Technical Assistant to the Minister of Agriculture, Dr. Adetunji Oredipe, who represented Adesina in Kogi State at the Cassava GES Roll Out at Agbadu Staple Crop Processing Zone, SCPZ, in Kabba Bunu Local Government Area of the state.
He said that the government established the cassava bread development fund, which is to be supported financially through the tariff on wheat flour.
He added that the Cassava Bread Development Fund would also be used to support research and development efforts on cassava bread, training of bakers and support for bakers for the getting of new equipment for production.
The minister said that the Growth Enhancement Scheme will allow the farmers to produce more food because the farmers will receive their improved cuttings and fertilizers.
This marks a major breakthrough in Nigeria's drive to support the Farmers, especially the modern cassava farmers and help them adopt more efficient agricultural practices.
This is also gives many people in Nigeria the assurance that they will have something else to depend on for nationwide development, a source of income and also progress other than the oil exportation that Nigeria so heavily depends on right now.
With the progress that is going to be made with this new project that has been undertaken we can expect that the agricultural sector in Nigeria is going to get a substantial boost.
In addition to this, there are talks about the president of Nigeria, Goodluck Jonathan going to sign a Biosafety bill into law. Although he set up a committee to vet the biosafety bill as passed by the National Assembly. This bill has been long awaited for a while now and the committee have called on the president not to further delay signing the bill.
This is also meant to push towards the goal of Nigeria achieving food sufficiency in 2015.
God-willing, this will be a reality.
