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Former President Olusegun Obasanjo yesterday said Nigeria has not been fair to farmers in the country.
According to him, the researchers, financial institutions and government have all conspired to victimise those who are in the business of farming.
He spoke in Lagos while delivering his keynote address at the Agribusiness Investors’ Network organised by the Innovative Youth in Agriculture (I-Youth) in partnership with International Institute of Tropical Agriculture (IITA) and Mastercard Foundation.
Obasanjo specifically decried the inability of farmers to access sustainable funding from financial institutions, saying the current double-digit interest rate given by banks is too prohibitive and cannot sustain any agric business.
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The former President said driving agriculture to attain self-sufficiency as a nation should go beyond “tokenism”, saying the critical mass of the population must be involved.
He said there must be a deliberate effort to bring all stakeholders together to produce a new generation of farmers that would take over from the old generation, noting that most of the farmers today are too old.
He stated that the youngest farmer in his village who happens to be his cousin is 75-year old, asking, “How do we replace them?”
“We need to see agriculture as being less of talk and more of action, timely action, right actions. Whatever you are doing in agriculture requires action and attention.
“Agriculture is a serious business that requires commitment, funding, reasonable cost, right and appropriate inputs, beginning from seeds. It requires stability and predictability,” Obasanjo added.
Deputy Director-General, Partnership for Delivery, IITA, Dr. Ken Danshiell said the conference was about bringing everybody together to support the youth to go into farming.
