Aare Onakakanfo of Yorubaland, Iba Gani Adams has called on the six governors of southwest states to inject at least 15% of their annual budget on agriculture, stating that this will play a huge impact in providing sustainable food production for the region
Iba Gani Adams who stated this on Friday while speaking with newsmen on
the recent protest of the Amalgamated Food Sellers in the northern part of the
country with the blockage of the foods from the area to southwest,
explained that the six state governments can employ expertise with Rwanda
model into agricultural sector
He said investment in agriculture will provide employment, enhance
IGR, provide food security, reduce urban congestion, and enlarge the
coast for participatory modernized agriculture.
Aare Adams also explained that the southwest consumed more than 8
billion naira foods and protein daily and for the northern traders to stage a
protest was a clarion call to the Southwest Stakeholders, including
security groups to provide the necessary security for farmers in order to
produce enough agricultural produce.
"It is embarrassing for the North to threaten our region with an
unwarranted blockade that is of no use to us. I have it on good record that the
south spend over 8 billion naira daily on cows consumption. It is an
embarrassment for the north to think that they are doing the south a favour. I
also have figures of the several billions we spend daily on perishable products,
but the truth is that the blockade that had been suspended now seemed to be a
blessing for us because it will trigger an agricultural revolution in the
southwest that will definitely change the ugly narratives of the past".
So, I think it is the responsibility of all the South-west governors to
swiftly respond to this threat and seek a better approach to enhance both small
and large scale farming across the region and further strengthen the security
architecture of the region''.
Meanwhile, the spokesman of Afenifere, Yinka Odumakin, in his view, said
the southwest region can conveniently feed itself without dependence on any
other region, adding that there is urgent need to go back to the
farm.
The Afenifere publicity scribe described the north's blockade of foodstuffs to the south as a
challenge to the southwest who before the pre-independence day majorly made its
IGR from agriculture.
While Sola Lawal noted that the leadership of Yoruba nation have backed
Aare Gani Adams' southwest security Stakeholders Group (SSSG) up in order to
provide adequate security for the
people of the region. He said the umbrella security outfit will help to
effectively streamline the challenges of insecurity.
Lawal said if there is security in all farm lands there will be enough food to produce in the southwest.
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