The present administration has a clear idea on how to execute its agricultural policy to achieve self-sufficiency in food production and diversify the economy in the process, Vice President Yemi Osinbajo, said yesterday.
Speaking at a meeting with a delegation of the Rice Farmers Association of Nigeria (RFAN) and the Wheat Farmers Association of Nigeria (WFAN), Osinbajo said “farmers are among the most important people in Nigeria today.”
He said by launching the CBN Anchor Borrowers financing initiative in Kebbi state, while also flagging-off the dry season rice and wheat farming late last year, what President Muhammadu Buhari did was setting-off an agricultural revolution without saying so.
He said the President’s action also “showed he had a clear idea of how to execute a formidable agricultural policy.”
He said: “The President said it throughout the campaigns that pursuing an active agriculture policy in rice and wheat would be important” because Nigerians consume them, and importing more of both, even though these are crops that the country has the capacity to grow locally.
In his remarks, Governor Atiku Bagudu of Kebbi state said the political will of the present administration in supporting rice and wheat farmers has energised the agricultural sector, raised the esteem of the farmers and heightening productivity in the sector.
Also speaking, president of the Rice Farmers Association of Nigeria, Aminu Goronyo said “farmers in Nigeria were considered useless people on the streets, but now farmers are kings.”
On his part, the president of Wheat Farmers Association of Nigeria, Salim Saleh Mohammed said the productivity level of rice and wheat farmers has already gone up.
