Nigeria Content Online

A Professor of Agriculture at the
Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria Mohammed Yissa Gana has said that
Nigeria is capable of producing rice for the whole of West Africa. Mr
Gana who is also a former Commissioner for Agriculture and Natural
Resources in Kwara State stated this yesterday in Ilorin at the opening
ceremony of a two-day human resource development conference organised
by the Agricultural and Rural Management Training Institute (ARMTI),
entitled, “Promotion of commercial agriculture in Nigeria: Implications
for human resource development.”

He said: “Rice fields available in
both Kwara and Niger states are enough to feed the West African
Sub-Region and save Nigeria billions of naira from importation of the
product. Northern States could also support the trend.” He however,
expressed his displeasure over the inability of the nation despite
large arable land in the North Central states of Nigeria to grow the
crop, adding that “Nigeria has spent billions of naira on importation
of rice from Thailand and other nations of the world.”

Vast arable land

According to him, “with an estimate of
99 million hectares of cultivatable land for agriculture with only 30
percent under cultivation, that means the country has about 60 million
uncultivated but cultivatable hectares of land scattered across the
country. The country has large volume of both surface and underground
water for irrigation for all-season agriculture. Nigeria has a young
population that is either unemployed or underemployed who could be
trained for commercial agriculture.” In his remarks, the state Head of
Service (HOS), Dabarako Mohammed said: “It is my belief that
collectively, we have all discovered that agriculture is the mainstay
of the economy where more than 70 percent of the population is engaged
and as well providing the much needed raw materials for our agro-allied
industries.” He, therefore, urged Nigerian farmers to embark on the
production of agricultural produce that will add economic value to the
nation.

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