Food security: Economist tasks FG on cooperative farming
By Gregory Mmaduakolam
An Economist, Mr Abba Adaudu, has urged the Federal Government to constitute Cooperative Farming for successful businessmen in the six Geo-political Zones to curtail the current high prices of foods in the country.
Adaudu, a financial consultant, made the call in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Abuja on Wednesday.
According to him, forming cooperative farming will assist to cushion the effects of food shortage and high prices of food in the country.
He noted that by empowering successful businessmen in the six geo-political zones would help to address the current food crisis in the country.
Adaudu added that if this policy was implemented with adequate supervision and security to protect these farmers in these zones; more food and employment opportunities would be created.
He noted that the Presidential Committee on Emergency Food Intervention was for a short term solution, adding that there was a need for the government to adopt long term measures to alleviate the current situation.
The economist and financial consultant noted that the release of grains from food silos through the Strategic Food Reserve across the country would not meet the current food demands.
He said once the economic and food challenges were addressed, the current insecurity in the country would be no more, adding that many people were hungry and would do anything to survive.
Adaudu urged the Federal Government to give tax waivers to these farmers so that they could import all the machinery they needed to do their farming also make fertilisers cheaply available to them.
He said when this was done, more food would be produced and the government would have more foods to feed the masses and excess would be exported to earn foreign exchange for the country.
On the issue of corruption, he said ethnicity; religion and were the major causes of corruption in the country.
“We should do more on national interest and gradually play down ethnic interest that has been raised above the national interest.
“People are going into politics (leadership) not for national interest but on the basis of religious and tribal interests’’.
He said insecurity is witnessed where there are economic activities such fishing, good fertile land and mining activities, listing Lake Chad area, Niger delta and middle belt areas where much of this insecurity were witnessed.
Adaudu, the politicians on ostentatious display of their wealth in the midst of many poor people, said this breeds envy, which could cause protest in the society.
He advised that the government should assuage the suffering of the people by providing basic amenities to them and stop ostentatious displays of wealth by politicians in the midst of many poor people.
He said this ostentatious display of wealth by the elite could breed envy which could lead to protest in the country.
Adaudu also called on the Government to evenly distribute the nation’s natural resources and ensure that minority ethnic groups were carried along in the developmental process.
According to him, this will enable the smaller minority to have a sense of belonging and check ethnic agitations threatening national unity.
He opined that national rebirth was possible when all Nigerians forget their political, religious and regional differences and work together for the unity of the entire country.(NAN)
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