No other sector creates jobs faster than agric - Adeshina

Dr. Akinwunmi Adesina, Agric & Rural Development Minister

Dr. Akinwumi Adesina, the Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development has described agriculture sector as the fastest in terms of employment generation.

The Minister, NaijaAgroNet learnt, said this in his remarks in Ekiti State at the Youth in Commercial Agribusiness Development Programme recently.

He also applauded the state governor, Dr. Kayode Fayemi for involving the state's youth in agriculture.

"To unlock the potential of agriculture to create jobs, we must engage the energy, dynamism and entrepreneurship of the youth," Adesina said.

"We are no longer treating agriculture as a development programme," the Minister asserted, adding that the goal of the government is to treat agric as a business and to make the nation an agriculturally industrialised economy.

He also made known the goal of the Agricultural Transformation Agenda to add an additional 20 million tonnes of food to the domestic food supply with the creation of 3.5 millions jobs in all the agriculture value chains.

He remarked that subsistence farming is not viable to feed a nation, pointing out that there is the need to expand the level of use of tractors in the country, which could be done by small, medium and large scale farmers.

In a bid to raise the level of use of improved seeds, Adesina said that the Federal Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development financed the entire seed supply for the country which amounts to N2.7 billion for the 2012 season.

The finance, he said is not from the government but the use of guarantees for banks to lend to seed companies. 

He also affirmed that the Federal Government was able to secure financing for the supply of fertilizers for 2012, at the level of N27 billion from commercial banks using guarantees from the Ministry of Finance.

Yinka Awosanya/LS

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