Nigeria should embrace farming as a profitable business — Denmark
Mr Jacob Erikstrup, Minister Counsellor at the Royal Danish Consulate-General in Lagos, on Tuesday said that it was imperative for Nigeria to begin to see farming as a profitable business.
Erikstrup told the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Lagos that farming needed to be upgraded and made attractive to young Nigerians, like every other profitable businesses and employment opportunities.
“Nigeria needs to begin to turn her farming into profitable business as engagements that would also be able to provide adequate food for her population.
“We know that from nature, Nigeria is a rich country. The potential is really here for this country to produce enough food for herself. But, this potential is not adequately being utilised.
“Nigeria urgently needs a lot of knowledge-building and a lot of investments to fully harness opportunities in farming,’’ he said.
Erikstrup said that he had observed a concentration of Nigerian farmers in the cities, adding that such situation was unhealthy for any country that was really ready to engage in farming.
The Minister Counsellor said that farmers in his country were mostly found in the ‘countryside’, where they had over the years continued to actively engage themselves in different forms of farming.
Erikstrup said that it was also imperative for the Nigerian government to create the enabling environment for encouraging more young Nigerians into farming in the rural communities.
“Nigeria needs to begin to attract more young farmers to the countryside, so as to be able to boost her farming and food production.
“Nigerian Governments should make farming attractive to young Nigerians.
“These young Nigerians should be provided with good incentive. They should be well-paid and made to live in decent apartments, and be able to provide for their families,’’ he added.
No comments:
Post a Comment