Agriculture remains critical to the survival of any economy. This explains current worries over soaring food prices in Nigeria in recent years.
From Buhari to Tinubu, the story remains the same: rising prices of food items have put many families on the economy edge.
Investigations reveal that poor agriculture policies on the part of governments at all levels in the country as well as insecurity, majorly account for the prevailing situation.
In some states for example, there are simply no agricultural programmes let alone policies. Yet, every year, governments especially, state governments, vote tens and hundreds of billions of naira to the agriculture sector.
How these huge amounts voted to agriculture in federal and state governments’ annual budgets are spent without commensurate growth in that sector, continues to remain a puzzle to many Nigerians.
Another farming season is currently on the horizon. State governments are expected to be proactive in tackling high food prices through well thought-out agricultural policies and programmes. This is because the governors have powers to allocate land for agriculture under The Land Use Act.
A country that cannot feed its citizens, is assumed to have failed.
Therefore, governments at all levels must start investing in agriculture now, like never before.
Again, governments should scale up security for farmers amidst rising banditry and terrorists’ activities across the nation.
