Okwe Obi
Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development, Audu Ogbeh, has said the prevalence of kidnapping across the country is one of the reasons most Nigerians do not want to venture into farming. They are afraid of being adopted from their farms.
Ogbeh, who said this recently while brainstorming on how to restructure and recapitalise the Bank of Ag- riculture (BoA), in Abuja, assured Nigerians especially farmers, of their safety.
He said, “we are also going to improve new form of security. I mean a more cultural type of security. Kidnappings have become the vogue among our younger elements and that has led to people fleeing agriculture in some areas. We will give our support to ensure that farmers operate safely on their farms.”
The Minister also urged young people to go into agriculture rather than travelling to other countries in search of greener pastures, which he said does not exist“. We need more cottage industries to decongest the cities so that young people can be comfortable in their rural environment making money and living a good life. We want to minimise the tendency of our young people crossing the desert in search of greener pastures which does not exist over there.
“The great news for Nigeria, which makes us a little different from others, is that a large number of young Nigerians are interested in agriculture. I keep talking about our young people because they are our children and they will replace us. They have knowledge and ambition we do not have.
And if we do not open the door for them to realise their ambition and grow agriculture to a level which their parents did not attain, by the time we are 450 million in just 30 years from now, this country will be in terrible commotion. But they need to access credit and pay back,” he added.