Joseph Kaltungo, an agronomist, has urged the government at all levels to invest massively in agriculture to overcome the economic crisis the country is facing.
Mr Kaltungo stated this in an interview in Gombe on Wednesday.
He said all stakeholders should make conscious efforts to ensure increased agricultural investment to avert a major food crisis in the country.
Mr Kaltungo, the former acting programme manager of the Gombe State Agricultural Development Programme, urged the federal government to devise means of ensuring that state governments go into farming.
“The federal government should find a way of ensuring that state governments invest in farming, especially dry season farming, to cultivate the vast arable land in the country.
“In the old Bauchi state, there were 350 hectares in Garin Tafida, owned by the then state government, which was used to cultivate food for the state. That could be replicated in all the states.
“At least, each state government should cultivate 500 hectares of farmland, especially during the dry season through irrigation, and we will feel the economic impact. The government should focus on agriculture. It is one of the solutions to Nigeria’s present economic quagmire,” he said.
Mr Kaltungo decried the politicisation of the agriculture sector, stressing that such had made it difficult for the country to get good returns from the sector.
He said the Anchor Borrowers Programme of then-President Muhammadu Buhari’s regime was done with political considerations where fake farmers were given funds.
“More than half of ABP money went into private pockets. With the kind of huge investment that we saw with the ABP, if half of the money was given to genuine farmers, we would not be where we find ourselves,” he said.
He also urged the federal government to address the issue of insecurity, invest more in dry-season farming and check the activities of food merchants who smuggle foods out of the country.
He said the above recommendations, if considered, would boost food security and increase the agriculture sector’s contribution to the country’s gross domestic product.
