….Says Nigeria must show passion, patience, commitment to achieve food sufficiency
By Bukayo Agboluaje
A former Vice Chancellor, Osun State University and the current Executive Secretary-CEO, African Forest Forum, Nairobi, Kenya, Prof. Labode Popoola has lamented the unwillingness of some Nigerian youths to work in farms, saying over the past 15 years, he has been hiring workers from Togo to work on his farm.
Popoola, who is of the Faculty of Renewable Natural Resources, University of Ibadan, said Nigeria and Nigerians must show commitment to agriculture in order to feed its citizens.
The professor stated this in an interview with journalists in Ibadan, the Oyo State capital.
He maintained that commitment, passion, and patience are pivotal to food sufficiency. The Professor of Forest Economics and Sustainable Development stressed that with a good climate and relatively fertile arable land, Nigeria must have food security. “I consider it a collective shame that Nigeria should be importing food”.
He asked: ‘’Let’s even assume we have facilities for production, storage and processing, do we have people who are really willing to be committed to farming? We are living in an environment where people want quick money. If you have university graduates who think that within five years of graduation they must be riding a car worth N20 million, you cannot convince such persons to go into farming. I’m a practical, commercial farmer. I have a commercial fish farm and I am a forester. I have my own forest plantation. I did not start early, but I went into it with passion and commitment. Today, I have about 12 acres of teak plantation out of my over 60 acres holding. I started in 2011. Each time I visit that plantation, I am satisfied that even if my pension is not forth coming when I retire, I have something to fall back on. The point I am making is this – if Nigeria wants to be truly involved in agriculture, it must have people who are committed to it.
‘’There must be passion and patience for it. My plea to the university system is to try as much as possible to train these students hands-on. Let them develop interest in some of these things from the university. There are so many people in the city who are supposed to be in the village. I have to hire labourers from Togo. There are Nigerians living in villages around my farm who are not willing to work. When you blame the government, you have to also blame the citizens.
‘’There is absolutely no reason Nigeria should not be food-secure. We have what it takes. The climate is good, we have the land and the fertility of the land is relatively good. We just need commitment, passion and patience’’. Importation of food into Nigeria cannot be a solution. It’s akin to importing inflation because there is inflation all over the world.