Legal luminary Afe Babalola says every Nigerian citizen should embrace farming, irrespective of profession or status.

Speaking at the closing ceremony of the 2022 edition of the annual “Afe Babalola Agricultural Expo” (ABA-EX) and Youth Development, he said embracing farming is the panacea for the country to make a meaningful impact in evolving alternative economic reliance.

He said he developed an interest in farming while in primary school and had never looked back, adding that farming remains one of the best solutions to the country’s myriads of problems.

“I was born as a farmer, and it is not surprising that I still continue to farm till today in spite of all that God has enabled me to attain.

“That is what I expect all Nigerians to do, no matter what you are or who you are. You just have to be involved in farming.

“Every family wants to be great, yet we are not involved in agriculture. We live in a nation where we produce less and consume more.

“Things don’t work like that, except we are waiting for calamity to happen in fact, we are already in the calamity,” he said.

At least 81 farmers, five in each of the 16 local government areas of Ekiti, were awarded cash gifts by Mr Babalola.

This, he said, was part of his annual contribution towards promoting the sector.

The best farmer from each LGA got a cash sum of N200,000; second, N150,000; third, N100,000; fourth, N75,000 and fifth, N50,000.

The overall best farmer across the state got the star prize of a cash sum of N2 million, among other things.

(NAN)