Agriculture, a viable means for employment creation –---Lawan
*Senate President, Ahmad Lawan
Lawan stated this against the backdrop of a bill under
consideration by the National Assembly seeking to establish the Agricultural
Development Fund.
“The agricultural
sector remains unarguably the most viable means of ensuring that we create
employment opportunities and that we create wealth for our people as well.
“If there is anything that needs to be done to enhance this
sector, we should do so”, the Senate President said.
He noted that the establishment of the fund will make
available some funds for the sector to do better and thrive, adding that same
will boost the Nigerian economy and provide the much needed food security in
the country.
Earlier, sponsor of the bill, Senator Abdullahi Adamu (APC –
Nasarawa West), leading debate on the bill, said that “the current contribution
of the agricultural sector to the nation’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP) stands
at 15-20 percent with the potential for improvement through the implementation
and sustenance of appropriate intervention programmes, policies and enabling
laws.”
According to the lawmaker, in spite of the policies and
enabling laws, the utilization of arable land in the country is only forty
percent, and agriculture largely subsistence with minimal value addition.
“It will be difficult to achieve agricultural productivity
and value addition required for industrial development without sustainable
funding. The fact that the current budgetary system will continue to be
improved but it will be insufficient to generate the necessary transformation
in the agricultural sector,” Adamu said.
The lawmaker noted, “One of the first steps that need to be
taken to ensure adequate funding for the agricultural sector is the enactment
of this bill in order to pave way for the creation of a mega-agency to manage
viable and sustainable sources of agricultural financing.”
He added that the bill when passed into law, would give
legal backing to the establishment of the Agricultural Development Fund, and
will compliment other funding development opportunities at the international
and regional levels.
Abdullahi stressed that the Fund, which will be domiciled
under the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development, would “fill the
apparent gap in agricultural development in the country, especially where the
mainstream government budgetary allocation is grossly inadequate.”
Senator Adamu Aliero (APC – Kebbi Central), while
contributing to the debate said if passed into law, the bill would put in place
the needed structure that will take care
of agricultural funding in the country.
“The bank is not capitalized, stakeholders have called for
recapitalization but the CBN has not responded to these calls”, he said.
The lawmaker noted that the piece of legislation besides
taking care of the existing gap of funding in the agricultural sector, will
promote value chain, generate employment as well as reduce poverty.
Senator Sandy Onuh (PDP – Cross River Central) said “one of
the challenges of agriculture in Nigeria is that it is predicated on
subsistence.”
“Subsistence agriculture exists because farmers do not have
access to funding, they continue to be where they are year in year out.
“There is need to establish the Agricultural Development
Fund. Everyone around the world is talking about moving from subsistence to
commercial farming”, the lawmaker added.
The bill which scaled second reading was referred by the
President of the Senate, Ahmad Lawan, to the Committee on Agriculture and Rural
Development for further legislative work.
The Committee which is Chaired by Senator Abdullahi Adamu is
expected to report back in 4 weeks.
Meanwhile, the Senate also on Wednesday considered a bill
for an Act to establish the Federal University if Agriculture, Dambatta, Kano
State.
The bill which scaled second reading during plenary was
sponsored by Senator Jibrin Barau (APC – Kano North).
The piece of legislation was referred to the Senate
Committee on Tertiary Institution and TETFUND for legislative input.
The Committee which is Chaired by Senator Ahmed Baba Kaita
(APC – Katsina North) is expected to turn in its report in four weeks.
Comments
Post a Comment