BY SUNDAY EGEDE
PRIOR to the discovery of crude oil in commercial quantity in Nigeria, agriculture used to be the mainstay of the nation’s economy. In fact, agriculture was the greatest employer of labour in Nigeria before the discovery of the ‘black gold’ otherwise known as crude oil,  as more than 70 per cent of the total work force of the nation was actively engaged in agriculture.
As at that time when we had groundnut pyramid in the north, massive cocoa production in west, palm oil production in the east and rubber production in the south, agriculture was the most productive sector of the economy of the Nigerian nation. As a matter of fact, Nigeria was one of the leading producers of palm oil in the world then when government’s energy was channelled towards promoting sustainable agricultural productivity in the country.
Today, the reverse is the case as Nigeria has, unfortunately, moved from the league of food and cash crops exporting countries of the world to food importing nation. It is absolutely ridiculous to note that over one trillion naira is spent annually on food importation by the country. This, no doubt, has become a source of great concern to many Nigerians as it is becoming obvious that we can no longer feed ourselves as a nation.
However, the good news is that conscious efforts are now being made by the federal and some state governments in the country to resuscitate the once booming agricultural sector of the nation’s economy. One of the states that had been in the forefront in the crusade for the revamping of the agricultural sector is Delta State.
In an interview with journalists, a renowned Veterinary Surgeon, Agriculturist of no mean standard and the Managing Director/Chief Executive Officer of Phed Breeder Farm and Hatchery Limited, Dr. Philip Okwuada spoke on food security in Nigeria and the inspiring efforts of the Dr. Emmanuel Uduaghan-led administration towards boosting agricultural productivity in the state among other issues relating to agriculture.
Okwuada who defined food security as unfettered and continuous access to affordable food with adequate nutritional value, said that Nigeria with a whooping population of over 150,000,000 people is suffocating under a severe burden of food importation, adding that food importation leads to rise in unemployment.
He listed the advantages of food security to include the availability of surplus funds for national development; improvement in the overall well-being of individuals in the country; increased mental and physical ability; improvement in the human capital output and increment in the overall human, social and capital development.
According to him, the consequences of food insecurity include increase in national expenditure on food importation; reduction in the availability of funds for capital, social and human development; reduction in the general well being of the citizenry; increase in diseases and deaths; reduction in human capital productivity; increase in poverty and hunger among the people and reduction in human lifespan among others.
Having realized the importance of agriculture as a robust alternative to oil, the Veterinary Surgeon said, the Delta State Government under the leadership of Dr. Emmanuel Uduaghan has shown tremendous interest in the sector as the incumbent administration is revolutionalising agriculture in the state.
“Just few months after he came on board in 2007 as the executive governor of the state, he conveyed an Agricultural Summit where all the agricultural stakeholders in the state were invited and the outcome of the summit was a well designed Agricultural Roadmap for food security in the state”, Okwuada said.
As part of the transformation agenda of the Uduaghan-led administration in the agricultural sector of the state economy aimed at creating jobs for the unemployed youths in the state, he said, the concept of Youth Empowerment Through Agriculture (YETA) was developed. He disclosed that the Uduaghan administration has actually made farming more attractive to the youths through the YETA scheme, adding that one of the fundamental objectives behind the programme (YETA) was to systematically replace the ageing farming population with a younger generation of farmers in the state.
“There is massive agriculture infrastructural built-up across the 25 local government areas in the state for the YETA programme where youths who were trained in poultry, piggery, fishery, snailry, rabbitry, oil palm, potato, yam, cassava, maize and melon among others are displaying the skill that they acquired during their training by the state government”, the agricultural expert added.
Apart from the YETA programme, he said, the state government has, also, supported old existing farming population in the state through its Farmers Support Programme (FSP), adding that the state government had provided improved high quality yielding seedlings and subsidized fertilizers to farmers among others.
Speaking further, Okwuada said that the state micro credit scheme was another effort of the state government towards the realization of socio-economic self-sufficiency of Deltans, pointing out that the state was addressing frontally, the issue of food security.
“In Delta State, the government is meticulously involved in the transformation of productivity of some selected arable crops such as rice and cassava. In this regard, efforts have been directed in providing improved planting materials, agro-inputs and finance. Palm oil production programme is, also, at the front burner of the state government”, he added. While saying that the state has a high productive advantage for oil palm, the Managing Director of Phed Breeder and Hatchery Limited disclosed that “in the case of nutritional value with respect to protein, the state government is pursuing increased productivity in the area of poultry, piggery and fisheries”.