By John Oba Abuja
Th e Permanent Secretary, Federal Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development, Dr. Bukar Hassan has restated the fact that agriculture is no more a social service programme, stressing the need for the government move it towards commercial agriculture. Hassan stated this yesterday when the editorial team of the Blueprint Newspapers paid him a courtesy visit in his offi ce in Abuja. He said the government has been trying to move away from subsistence farming to commercialised farming.
‘He further promised that the ministry is ready to partner with the media to ensure that farmers in the rural areas are reached. “Th e subsistence agriculture that we knew before existed where nobody talk about fertilizer, tractor. Th e best we could was to have a plough but commercial agriculture can not be like that. We have to change and this change requires slots of inputs more than money, or equipment. “It requires knowledge, technical know-how and I think the right partners would be the press, ” he said. Earlier, the Managing Editor, Blueprint Newspapers who led the delegations, Mr Clem Oluwole, said the purpose of the visit is to strengthen the existing relationship between the ministry and the medium. He said there is the need to give agriculture a priority of place
as investment in the sector can help stem rural urban migration. “Agriculture is very crucial to Nigeria’s development, it is more results oriented than oil and should be given prominence. We want to further partner with the ministry to help give it a mileage,” he said.
