President Muhammadu Buhari has appraised his administration’s Back-to-the-land policy aimed at focusing on agricultural sector development, saying its effectiveness has led to increase in people leaving office jobs for farming as career choice for Nigerians, particularly the youths.
He boasted that the focus on agriculture by the current government was paying off handsomely, and that Nigerians are not regretting the policy put in place by his administration to ensure the country grow what its population consume in terms of food staples, diary and other produce.
President Buhari recalled that he had introduced the policy to block loopholes created by fluctuating oil price and to reduce foreign exhchange been expended on importing food items, and other products from foreign countries.
The president who disclosed this on Friday at State House, Abuja, while receiving in audience former Prime Minister of Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia, Ato Hailemariam Dessalegn Boshe, maintained that Nigerians had begun appreciating the policy with food sufficiency been recorded across the country.
“We needed to go back to the land, as petroleum could no longer sustain the country, particularly with fluctuating prices. Today, we eat what we grow, and we have stopped importation of many food products. There’s no foreign exchange to even waste again.
He said that the introduction of technology enhanced tools to farming has greatly helped the seamless transition of Nigerians into farming and that the youths are exploiting their technical know-how in technology to expand and improve the agricultural sector
“Agriculture has also helped us to generate employment. We have embraced technology, and some people are even leaving the offices to go back to the land. And they are not regretting it. That is the feedback we get,” Buhari was quoted to have told his visitor in a statement by his spokesperson, Femi Adesina, on Friday.
On his part, the former Prime Minister congratulated President Buhari for achievements Nigeria has attained under him, especially in agriculture, and for successful management of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Saying he was in the country on the auspices of Alliance for Green Revolution in Africa, Boshe noted that the organization was working in 16 countries in Africa, “and if we want to change anything in the continent, it must start with Nigeria.”
He stressed that Africa must emulate what was happening in other parts of the world as regards agriculture, and with Nigeria having achieved greatly, being able to stop rice importation, “we want to champion the Nigerian policy at the continental level. We should have a common African voice on food self-sufficiency. Africa can feed the globe.”
