The dawdling growth of agriculture in Nigeria has been blamed on the involvement of consultants in the implementation of government policies and agricultural programmes.
This blame was served by an Osogbo based farmer – the Chief Executive Officer of Tuns holdings and farms Nigeria Limited, Alhaji khamis Olatunde Badmus while in a chat with newsmen in Osogbo, the Osun State Capital.
Badmus alleged that most of the consultants employed by government to implement its various agricultural programmes “don’t know anything about real farming.”
“Those consultants are always hanging around government agencies and ministries, with high-tech power presentation of how farming production would be done, deceiving the government while in the real sense they do not know anything about practical farming,” he said.
He, therefore, advised government to make good use of real practicing farmers, who operate on the farms in order to promote its agricultural policies and programmes, noting that the government needs to identify such practicing farmers and channel its agricultural programmes through them for effective and maximum results.
Badmus further stressed the need for government to encourage mechanised farming as being practiced in other countries, saying “that is what makes agriculture work over there.”
“For effective agriculture development, productions of agricultural crops should be based on geo-political zones with comparative advantage. This is a major way by which we can produce enough food crops that will feed the whole nation,” he said.
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