A non-government organization- Uplifting Youths Through Agriculture (UYOTA) wants the Federal Government to invest much more in the nation’s agricultural sector to bost production, provide jobs across the value-chain and enhance food sufficiency, using some of the looted funds being recovered from across the country.
According to Mrs. Afoma Clara Adigwe, Founder and President of UYOTA, this win-win arrangement of given the funds as single-digit loans to farmers, being the fastest way to create jobs, alleviate poverty, improve standard of living, would significantly boost Nigeria’s economy.
Adigwe, spoke against the backdrop of a recent tour of Thailand, the world’s largest producer of rice, accompanied by some selected royal fathers to see that country’s agricultural investment at the royal Chitralada projects, where they gained first-hand experience, so as to replicate it back home.
the organisation, which is committed to promoting and improving the lives of people in the grassroots, told newsmen that the royal fathers were taken on the tour, considering their roles as intermediaries “between the grassroots and the government which is a synergy for success.
“We want to see how UYOTA can collaborate with the government to help the youths.
We want to see how the youths can go into packaging, processing and preservation, because we have a lot of post-harvest waste… even if they might not be able to do the farming themselves.”
The override aim of the NGO, she assured is to ensure that Nigerian youths are employed through agriculture which is a very vast area with unimaginable opportunities waiting to be tapped, stressing happiness that the government and CBN are convince all that the sector can be a business oriented, away from the past when it was treated a social service left for the aged and unambitious.
The role of the royal fathers, she continued, will be to identify youths in their communities, who would then be encouraged to redirect their energies into productive use with direction on how to where get all manner of help.
She also urged the government to likewise “carry the royal fathers along while the royal fathers in turn partner with UYOTA to alleviate the sufferings of the youth.
“For us, the answer to the food crisis we are going through is for the royal fathers to key in the agricultural project of the people of Thailand.”
Speaking on the need for proper infrastructure to aid the agricultural sector, Toyin Jaiyeola, chief Executive Officer Farmers Delight and special adviser UYOTA said: “We need land, and a good transportation network because 70 per cent of farm produce gets bad before they get to the market and so this is wasted effort.
“The farmers are doing a lot but are not getting as much from their hard work,” she stressed, urging government should build cooling stations/centres around the farms where produces are kept pending when they are transported to the market to prevent spoilage.
“The government should begin to look at practical things to aid farming; get irrigation so that farming can be all year round, including silos,” she added.