From Theresa Egba, Abuja

The Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development, Chief Audu Ogbeh, has stated that his ministry would accord research a priority under the new national agricultural roadmap.

Ogbeh who disclosed this in Abuja at the inauguration ceremony of Technical Working Group on Agricultural Roadmap by the Minister of Agric, said if Nigeria applies the results of research work emanating from the Lake Chad Research Institute, it will help other agricultural research institutes to deliver on most of their core mandates for the benefit of the generality of Nigerians.

According to him, the universities of agriculture, which have wandered away, are coming back under his ministry, to make their own contribution of boosting research, teaching and production in the sector.

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He said Nigerians will create jobs through the various commodity value chains and will deploy technologies that will help boost productivity in terms of yields per hectare on the field, quality products after processing and guaranteed minimum price for producers at the markets as farmers will no longer be vulnerable in the market place.

“Now is the time to shift from petro-dollars to agro-dollars. To restore Nigeria to the path that was abandoned in the past five decades will require careful thinking, strategic planning and strict adherence to implementation.

“Every highway marked with mileposts and signposts helps the travellers know where they are going and how they are progressing on their journey. The various road signs help in averting accidents and help observant travellers to keep to a clear course, avoiding any diversion. Our exercise on roadmap is intended to achieve similar purpose on the agricultural economy of Nigeria.

The Minister further stated that, “we need to fashion out how to liberate Nigeria from the stranglehold of food importation. We need to deliberate on how our states would get down to the work on food production for the teeming population that might soon hit 200 million. With our foreign reserve at less than $30 billion, the government, realistically, cannot afford to encourage more importation of foods, particularly those we have the comparative advantage to produce in-country. We need to ease the pressure on our foreign exchange.”