Agriculturist Tasks FG On Dev Incentives

An agriculturist, Mrs
Halima Mohammed, has urged the Federal Government to provide developmental incentives in rural areas of the country to improve food production and curb rural-urban migration.
Mohammed who is the coordinator of an NGO, “No Agriculture, no Deal” made the call in an interview with newsmen in Abuja recently.
According to her, the government needs to provide infrastructure like good roads, silos, electricity, loan facilities and produce market.
She said government needed to de-congest the urban centres especially the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), and create job opportunities through agriculture and entrepreneurship to curb youth restiveness.
“Agriculture is a universal thing that can create jobs to about 75 per cent of Nigeria’s teeming youths especially with the introduction of the value added chains of the Federal Ministry of Agriculture”, she said.
Mohammed noted that since the discovery of oil, the agriculture sector has suffered neglect from not just the federal and state governments but also from Nigerians generally.
“Nigeria has one of the most fertile lands in Africa for agriculture with our population growing rapidly, one is tempted to ask what the federal government would use to feed the growing population”, she said.
She expressed fear on how the rural-urban migration problem could be resolved when programmes such as agricultural exhibitions and shows were carried out in the FCT, yet cries for job creation was on the rise.
The agriculturist further called on the federal government to hold such programmes at the grassroots as well as ensure good road network for easy transportation of farm produce to the various markets.