Aare Onakakanfo of Yorubaland, Iba Gani Adams, has called on the six governors of South-West states to inject at least 15% of their annual budget on agriculture, stating that this will play a huge impact in providing sustainable food production for the region
Iba Gani Adams, who stated this on Friday while speaking with newsmen on the recent protest of the Amalgamated Food Sellers in the northern part of the country with the blockage of the foods from the area to South-West, explained that the six state governments can employ expertise with Rwanda model into agricultural sector
He said investment in agriculture will provide employment, enhance IGR, provide food security, reduce urban congestion, and enlarge the coast for participatory modernised agriculture
Aare Adams also explained that the South-West consumes more than N8 billion foods and protein daily and for the northern traders to stage a protest was a clarion call to the South-West Stakeholders, including security groups to provide the necessary security for farmers to produce enough agricultural produce.
“It is embarrassing for the North to threaten our region with an unwarranted blockade that is of no use to us. I have it on good record that the South-West spends over N8 billion daily on cows consumption. It is an embarrassment for the North to think that they are doing the South a favour. I also have figures of the several billions we spend daily on perishable products, but the truth is that the blockade that had been suspended now seemed to be a blessing for us because it will trigger an agricultural revolution in the South-West that will definitely change the ugly narratives of the past”.
“So, I think it is the responsibility of all the South-West governors to swiftly respond to this threat and seek a better approach to enhance both small and large scale farming across the region and further strengthen the security architecture of the region”.
Meanwhile, the spokesman of Afenifere, Yinka Odumakin, in his view, said the South-West region can conveniently feed itself without dependence on any other region, adding that there is urgent need to go back to the farm.
The Afenifere publicity scribe described North’s blockade of foodstuffs to the South as a challenge to the South-West who before the pre-independence day majorly made its IGR from agriculture.
While Sola Lawal noted that the leaders of Yoruba nation have backed Aare Gani Adams’ South-West Security Stakeholders Group (SSSG) up in order to provide adequate security for the people of the region.
He said the umbrella security outfit will help to effectively streamline the challenges of insecurity.
Lawal said if there is security in all farmlands, there will be enough food to produce in the South-West.
