Federal Government has been urged to put measures in place to encourage young people to farm.
At a stakeholders programme between research and policy makers in Abuja, they said this could be achieved by providing incentives in form of access to credit facilities for youths.
They also called for strengthening of agricultural institutes as well as access to credit, targeted at specific agriculture value chain and increased food production.
The programme with the theme, ‘Employment Creation in Agriculture and Agro-Processing in the Context of Inclusive Growth in Nigeria,’ was organised by the National Institute for Legislative Studies (NILS) in collaboration with Partnership for African Social and Governance Research.
Before Nigeria joined the league of oil producing nations in 1958, agriculture was the mainstay of the economy. Then, agriculture constituted about 75 percent of the Gross Domestic Product (GDP).
But with the discovery of oil at Oloibiri, Bayelsa State in 1958, and as Nigeria began to earn quick money from sale of crude oil, agriculture was relegated to the background. At present, the oil sector remains the dominant revenue earner, accounting for about 70 percent of Nigeria’s export earnings.
Speaking at the event, NILS director-general, Ladi Hamalai, said the programme was organised to ensure policy development implementation chain in the agriculture sector.
She called for diversification of the economy with emphasis on agriculture.
“Agriculture is very important to national development. It used to employ over 50 percent of Nigerians until recently. Agriculture is also the basis for industrial raw materials and once you are able to create the necessary linkage between industry and agriculture, you find out that there are various tops and in each top, you have tremendous opportunities for employing our teeming youths that are unemployed. So, this is an area that cannot only generate the requisite food production for the country but also create employment,” she said.
At the debate on general principles of the 2017 budget, some senators had expressed concern that only 1.8 percent of the budget was allocated to the sector.
But Hamalai was upbeat that the lawmakers before passage of the budget would increase the allocation.
“We are not worried in the sense that the budget process is still ongoing. The committees are now discussing the budget. We are hoping that the outcome of this particular forum will go to the Agriculture and Labour Committees of the two chambers so that they will be well informed in scrutinising the 2017 budget proposal,” she said.
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