ABUJA: Ogbe Advocates For Diversification To Agriculture Over High Population

Chief Audu Ogbe

MINISTER of Agriculture, Chief Audu Ogbe has called on the citizens to embrace farming as a viable means to counter the high increase rate of our population which he said could lead to starvation before 2050 if nothing changes from the present mode of farming.

The Minister who disclosed this while defending the 2016 Budget stated that the country’s adoption of concentrated mechanized farming is no longer optional vis-à-vis the high growth of the nation’s population which solely depended on oil.

Emphatically, the minister noted that by the rate of increase of Nigeria’s population, its figure would likely hit about 509 million people by 2050 and therefore needed to be intensively looked into with practicable intervention to avoid starvation and suffering that are looming if nothing is done.

However, Audu noted that the concentration would not solely be on the Federal Government of Nigeria but extended to both the State governments and the private sectors adding that a meaningful result can only occur where all the stakeholders take positive responsibility towards redressing the situation.

However, the Minister whilst asserting his confidence that the blueprints of his ministry will  make a substantial difference in the economy, he added that he believed that Nigeria is capable of feeding its citizens as against the high rate of importation which has degradedly placed the country as a consuming rather than producing country in the world. This he noted was among the cardinal agendas of the President Mohammadu Buhari’s administration to make a change in the polity.

 “We have written to state governments to encourage them to develop dams and canals so that agriculture becomes an all year round activity and it is not confined to the rainy season alone.

“Besides, by 2050, Nigeria population will be very close to 500 million at the current rate of growth. This is just 34 years from now. If we carry on at the current rate of one crop per year, with very low mechanization, Nigerians run the risk of starving to death.

“We intend to intensity and consolidate on the local staples, the yams, the cassava,  the beans, especially rice and wheat. Both of which consume $11 million per day in import. The figure is going down a bit. We can’t afford that in the long run because we don’t even have the resources.

“The ministry has put necessary machinery in motion to stop the constant bloody clashes between herdsmen and farmers. We have decided we are going to develop massive paddocks across the country.

“What the cows are looking for is grass and water. We have the capacity to grow the grass we want not just any kind of grass but highly nutritive grass for the cows to eat. If it can be done in Kenya, Saudi Arabia, there is no reason why we can’t do it here.

‘’There is sizable provision for grassing at hinterland, by developing water, drilling of boreholes and small dams to irrigate those areas already mapped out. In the process we hope that the cattle herdsmen would have a more stable life.”