Yesterday; Friday, President Muhammadu Buhari said that crude
oil and gas exports would no longer be sufficient as the country’s major
revenue earner.
He said the time has come for Nigerians to do more than pay mere
lip service to agriculture.
According to a statement by his Special Adviser on Media and
Publicity, Mr. Femi Adesina, the President spoke while granting audience to the
Nigerian-born President of the International Fund for Agricultural Development,
Dr. Kanayo Nwanze, in the Presidential Villa, Abuja. IFAD
is an international
organisation established in 1978 to address issues of agriculture and poverty
alleviation.
“It’s time to go back to the land. We must face the reality that
the petroleum we had depended on for so long will no longer suffice. We
campaigned heavily on agriculture, and we are ready to assist as many as want
to go into agricultural ventures,” Adesina quoted the President as saying.
Buhari also pledged that his administration would review the
long bureaucratic process that Nigerian farmers had to go through to get
assistance from the government.
He told the IFAD President that improvement of the productivity
of farmers, dry season farming and creative ways to combat the shrinking of the
Lake Chad would also receive his administration’s attention.
“There is so much to be done. We will try and articulate a
programme and consult organisations like IFAD for advice,” the President said.
Buhari added that foreign exchange would be conserved for
machinery and other items needed for production, instead of using it to import
things like toothpicks.
Dr. Kanayo Nwanze congratulated Buhari on his victory in the
general elections and assured him that IFAD was ready to assist Nigerian
farmers to boost their activities.
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