Former President Olusegun Obasanjo said Nigeria has not been fair to farmers in the country.
Obasanjo stated this while delivering his keynote address at the Agribusiness Investors’ Network organized by the Innovative Youth in Agriculture (I-Youth) in partnership with the International Institute of Tropical Agriculture (IITA) and the Mastercard Foundation in Lagos on Sunday.
According to him, researchers, financial institutions, and the government have all conspired to victimize those who are in the business of farming.
Obasanjo decried the inability of farmers to access sustainable funding from financial institutions, saying the current double-digit interest rate given by banks is too prohibitive and cannot sustain any agribusiness.
The former President said driving agriculture to attain self-sufficiency as a nation should go beyond “tokenism”, saying the critical mass of the population must be involved.
He said there must be a deliberate effort to bring all stakeholders together to produce a new generation of farmers that would take over from the old generation, noting that most of the farmers today are too old.
Obasanjo stated that the youngest farmer in his village, who happens to be his cousin, is 75 years old, asking, “How do we replace them?”
He said, “We need to see agriculture as being less talk and more action—timely action, right action.” Whatever you are doing in agriculture requires action and attention.
“Agriculture is a serious business that requires commitment, funding, a reasonable cost, and the right and appropriate inputs, beginning with seeds. It requires stability and predictability,” Obasanjo added.
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