Lack of interest has been identified as
the bane of agricultural development in Nigeria. Benard Onuegbu, a
former Rivers State Commissioner for Agriculture said this on Tuesday
in Port Harcourt.
“Many persons are tempted to accuse government of not
evolving the right policies and programmes, I think that the right
policies are there but the interest is not. In this country, many see
farming as an occupation for the man that is ready to be beaten by the
rain and the sun, an occupation for those seen as failures,” he said.
Mr Onuegbu, a professor of Crop Science, said Nigerians must wake up to
the reality that an alternative source of revenue existed in
agriculture. He attributed the lack of interest in farming to the
discovery of crude oil in Nigeria, adding that the advent of the black
gold killed the interest of many Nigerians in agriculture. “
For doing
nothing, people earn money through oil, so nobody wants to work; the
policies and programmes designed by the government just end up
achieving nothing,” he said.
Commenting on the Food and Agriculture
Organisation (FAO) report of a possible food crisis in the country, Mr
Onuegbu said that if majority of Nigerians devote interest in
agriculture, food production, the revenue base would be further
enhanced.
