By Valentine Amanze, Online Editor
President Muhammadu Buhari has assured Nigerian farmers that they would reap the benefits of his administration’s policy in agriculture.
He also promised that the government would continue to accord the highest priority to agriculture, describing it as the country’s largest employer of labour and engine of growth.
In a statement by the Senior Special Assistant to the President (Media & Publicity), Garba Shehu, the president made the commitment at a meeting with Katsina State Elders Forum at the State House in Abuja on Thursday.
The President said the farmers that his administration would continue to enhance output and productivity by ensuring the availability of cheap agricultural credits, farm inputs, fertilizer and the introduction of latest technologies.
He explained that the choice of practicing farmers as ministers in charge of agriculture, first Chief Audu Ogbe and now, Alhaji Sabo Nanono, was a reflection of his wish to protect the interest of farmers and the attainment of national food self-sufficiency.
He however promised to look into the request of the Katsina Elders for the expansion of existing irrigation schemes at Zobe and Sabke dams to enhance employment and profitability in agriculture, saying that a situation in which 60 per cent of the state is productive in rain-fed agriculture for three to four months, and idle for the rest of the year was unacceptable.
The president also disclosed that he had urged his ministers of agriculture to work with the states to rediscover the lost animal grazing routes and reserves as a means to ending the frequent outbreak of violence between farmers and herders.
He pressed the necessity of educating school-age children, saying that once the opportunity of early education is lost, it often turns out very difficult for them to make up.
His words: “This is the best preparation we can give to them. We destroy their lives by denying children education.”
Buhari also broached the issue of armed banditry and kidnapping that had bedevilled Katsina and other northwestern states and assured that the situation would be overcome in the same way the farmer-herders attacks were subdued.
The leader of the delegation, Alhaji Aliyu Balarabe Saulawa, representing the Chairman, Alhaji Ahmadu Kurfi, Maradin Katsina, commended the president for returning peace to most parts of the state and for the various infrastructure projects, including the Kano-Jigawa-Katsina-Maradi rail link. They commended the recent decision by government to elongate the service of teachers and improve their condition of service.
