Engineer Tasks Govt On Land Ownership

An Abuja- based Engineer,
Mr Femi Babalola, has said that for land to be optimally utilised in the country as a resource, the government should de-emphasise the ownership of land.
Babalola, who was speaking on an NTA programme recently on how best to put land to positive use as a resource said the authorities should make land avalaible to those who need it for developmental activities.
He explained that afforts should be put in place to make land acceptable to banks as collateral to enable people make profitable use of such land.
“We have to make land accessible to and to make it acceptable to banks as collateral so that people with land that want to do something on their land in terms of agriculture or physical development can do so with ease,” he said.
According to him, once that was done people would have the necessary resources to develop the land.
He said for those who are  into farming it is advisable to leave the land fallow to allow it get re-energised and get more nutrition back to it.
He said it was not healthy for those involved in live-stock farming to keep grazing their animals on a particular land piece over a long period of time.
“After grazing, you move your animals, you allow the grasses to grow then you move them back again” he said.
Also speaking, a scientist at the International Institute of Tropical Agriculture, (IITA), Dr Stefen Housier said Nigeria being the biggest producer of cassava has potentials of increasing the value chain of the product.
He said that if cassava was put to better use and abuse and mismanagement checked, there were technologies at IITA that the country could use to its advantage.
“There are various technologies that would keep the soil in place to ensure fertility and biodiversity and all the positive aspects of enriching the soil”, he said.
Dr Housie said “I can assure you that cover crops like earth soils and erosion control and all of these methodologies are available”.
He said problems of soil fertility and soil erosion were at IITa even as he said people are adviced to ask for help at all times to avail themselves of such services and information on the technologies.