- He lamented Nigerian youths preference to seek opportunities in the entertainment industry, which underscores the need to make agriculture more glamorous
Former President Olusegun Obasanjo has said the plethora of socio-economic challenges that beset Nigeria can be remedied with conscious and deliberate investment in agriculture.
Obasanjo stated that the government needed to make agriculture attractive to young persons in order to check youth emigration, unemployment and insecurity.
He spoke during his address at the 9th International Trade Exhibition & Conference on Agrofood, Plastics, Printing, and Packaging which was held in Lagos on Tuesday.
He lamented Nigerian youths preference to seek opportunities in the entertainment industry, which underscores the need to make agriculture more glamorous.
He implored policymakers at all levels to ensure policy consistency and uniformity that would allow farmers to make short and long term targets without worrying about possible policy somersaults which may torpedo their plans.
A key part of this, he said, involved making single-digit loans available to farmers, as no agribusiness can produce profitably with double digit loans.
He added, “First is employment, with our teeming population and the problem we have with our youths going over the desert and risking their lives at the Mediterranean will stop. What can we do to give them enough employment at home?
“The area that is sure to provide employment for our teeming youth population is agriculture. When you talk about agriculture, not many of them will want to come to the farm, they will rather go into the music that they do now. We have to make agriculture glamorous because these youths, they make money that way (through music), and then you are asking them to come to the farm. They won’t want to.”