TheCable

President Muhammadu Buhari says Nigerians must stop paying lip service to agriculture, as crude oil and gas exports will no longer be sufficient as the country’s major revenue earner.

The president gave the charge at an audience with Kanayo Nwanze, the Nigerian-born president of the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD), at the presidential villa in Abuja on Friday.

“It’s time to go back to the land. We must face the reality that the petroleum we had depended on for so long will no longer suffice. We campaigned heavily on agriculture, and we are ready to assist as many want to go into agricultural ventures,’’ he said.

Buhari said his administration would also cut short the long bureaucratic processes that Nigerian farmers had to go through to get any form of assistance from government.

He told the IFAD president that improvement of the productivity of farmers, dry season farming and creative ways to combat the shrinking of the Lake Chad will also receive the attention of his administration.

“There is so much to be done. We will try and articulate a programme and consult organisations like IFAD for advice,’’ he said.

Buhari said foreign exchange will be conserved for machinery and other items needed for production “instead of using it to import things like toothpicks’’.

Nwanze had earlier congratulated Buhari on his victory at the general election and assured him on IFAD’s readiness to give all possible assistance to the federal government and Nigerian farmers to boost agricultural production in the country.

Nwanze, who later spoke to state house correspondents, said that since 1985, IFAD had been providing loans and grants to boost production in the nation’s agricultural sector.

“Nigeria has the largest portfolio of IFAD’s investment in Western and Central Africa and the second largest in Africa,” he said.

“But the case point here is that this country has all the endowments that it takes not only for it to produce enough food for its population but also to be the bread basket of region.

“And this is where my institution on my behalf, I offered our services and our support in the agenda of rural transformation as a key ingrate in this country’s economic and social development.’’

IFAD, an international organisation dedicated to addressing issues of agriculture and poverty alleviation, was established in 1978, and has been collaborating with Nigeria for more than 30 years.