Chairman of Fisheries Society of Nigeria (FISON) in Rivers State, Dr Awoterum George has described agriculture as the permanent key to national development and economic growth in Nigeria.

George told newsmen in Port Harcourt recently that the only way to avert food insecurity in the country was for the three tiers of government to encourage agriculture

He said that stable governments depended on food security, adding that the U.S. had remained a world power partly on account of its food security.

George, also a lecturer in Fishery Department of the Rivers State University of Science and Technology, Port Harcourt, advised the Federal Government to adequately fund research institutes across the country.

He said the funding would enable the institutions key into the emerging technologies.

The FISON chairman advised government to rely less on petroleum, which he said, was exhaustible.

He said that some oil wells in the Niger Delta were drying up.

George said that agriculture remained the only sustainable source of national income, noting that before the discovery of petroleum, the country was producing cocoa, groundnut, cotton, palm oil, among others, for export.

He urged Nigerians, especially the unemployed youths, to cash in on the fertility of the country’s soil, rather than seek for white collar jobs.

The FISON chairman said the nation’s population was on the increase without a corresponding increase in food production.

The lecturer expressed concern over the extinction of the “School to Land” programme of former Governor Fidelis Oyakhilome, saying that it brought about boom in food production.

Oyakhilome was the military governor of Rivers State between 1984 and 19876.

George said that the farmers were encouraged while the programme lasted, adding that a rebirth of the programme was being expected in this democratic dispensation.

He said that 60 to 70 per cent of income of residents in Port Harcourt was being spent on food.