Against the backdrop for food scarcity in the South-West occasioned by blockade instigated by association of Northern food dealers, a Yoruba leader, Gani Adams, has called on the six governors of South-West states to inject at least 15 percent of their annual budget into agriculture.

Speaking with reporters on Friday in Lagos, Mr. Adams said such allocation would make a huge impact on sustainable food production in the region.

He urged the six state governments in the South-West zone to adopt the Rwanda model by engaging expertise in their agricultural sectors.

“Investment in agriculture will provide employment, enhance IGR, provide food security, reduce urban congestion, and enlarge the coast for participatory, modernised agriculture,” he noted.

According to Mr. Adams, the South-West consumes more than N8 billion worth of food and dairy products daily.

He said the recent food crisis was a clarion call to the South-West stakeholders, including security groups to provide the necessary security for farmers in order to produce enough agricultural produce.

“It is the responsibility of all the South-West governors to swiftly respond and seek a better approach to enhance both small and large scale farming across the region.

“They should also strengthen the security architecture of the region,” he said.

Peoples Gazette had earlier reported how the Amalgamated Union of Foodstuff and Cattle Dealers of Nigeria (AUFCDN) caused a blockage of food from the northern part of the country to the South in protest over claims that some of their members were being harassed and killed.

The seizure created shock across markets in the South as they rely on supplies from the North for their trade.

In a related development, the spokesman of Yoruba socio-cultural organisation, Afenifere, Yinka Odumakin, said the South-West region can conveniently feed itself without dependence on any other region.

Mr. Odumakin added that there was an urgent need to go back to the farm in the geo-political zone.

The Afenifere publicity scribe described the North’s blockade of foodstuffs to the South as a challenge to the South-West which had made its IGR from agriculture before independence. 

(NAN)