Nigeria to earn N5tn from agriculture –Shonga GM

Nigeria can achieve national food security and earn about N5tn foreign exchange from agricultural exports as well as create massive employment with the adoption of commercial agriculture, the General Manager, Shonga Farm Holdings Limited, Mr. Adebayo Sangobiyi, has said.

In an interview with The Punch correspondent in Ilorin, the Kwara State capital, on Thursday, he said it was imperative to have a well-articulated and strategic agricultural master plan that should be strictly implemented to boost the nation’s agricultural transformation.

He canvassed the adoption of the Shonga Farm model as a national agricultural strategy, stating that such a measure could make Nigeria compare favourably with the United States and the United kingdom in agricultural production and exports.

He said Nigeria’s food import bill of N717bn as of December 2013, according to a former Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development, Dr Akinwumi Adesina, was not cheering.

Sangobiyi said, “If we face agriculture squarely, there will be industrialisation; with that, the economy will be transformed. Even at the national level, the Gross Domestic Product will improve and we will do less of importation.”