Mohammad Abubakar, minister of agriculture and rural
development, says farmers have made more money under the President Muhammadu
Buhari administration.
Speaking on Thursday at an event organised by the All
Progressives Congress (APC) agro commodity directorate of the party’s
presidential campaign council, Abubakar said agriculture is a sustainable path
to wealth for Nigeria.
“In the last eight years, farmers have never had it this
good. When he (Buhari) was elected in 2015, he made it a point to turn Nigeria
into an agric giant that we should have been years back,” the minister said.
“In the 1960s, Nigeria was an agricultural giant, exporting
commodities all over the world. The infrastructure that was built around this
time from earnings in agriculture.
“After the discovery
of oil we went to sleep as far agriculture is concerned. Then we realised that
oil is a fluke and that it can disappear and cause climate change.
“Farmers — small, medium, and large — have made more money
in the last seven and half years than in the previous administrations. This
administration has made more budgetary provisions and special intervention in
the agric space than the previous governments.
“This administration has made sure that on the world front,
Nigeria is a shining example. We are rice self-sufficient.
“We are number one in
Africa. We are number one in cassava in the whole world.”
On his part, Abubakar Bello, head of the agro commodity
directorate, said the country has been able to produce what it needs and is
gearing up for export.
“We cannot afford to allow in a clueless government that had
already promised to open the national borders and take us back to the era of
massive food and weapons import and make our over 70 newly established
integrated rice mills and other agricultural investments to become moribund and
our youths unemployed,” he said.
Bello said Bola Tinubu, the presidential candidate of the
APC, would build on the achievements of Buhari in the agriculture sector.
Also speaking, Retson Tedheke, secretary of the directorate,
said the federal government must treat the agricultural sector as a national
security issue, not just a commercial venture.
Meanwhile, the minister’s comment comes amid concerns over
how security challenges in parts of the country have affected the output of
farmers.
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Surely, specially rice farmers, but they spent a lot for buying fertiliser and others farms implement due to the devalue of naira to dollar (₦ - $) exchange!
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