Often time I hear our people, elites and masses alike, raise the question of diversifying our Economy. Truly, we need to do that. But our intended answer, which seems to be Agriculture, to this National question is entirely wrong.
If our Senate floor had been filled with men who are no less concerned about researches into 21st Century governance as much as they are concerned about their paychecks, Chief Audu Ogbe would have not only taken a bow, but also a lesson of his life from them.

Think about it, if Google company alone can provide over 5million jobs to the American people, what about other Internet and technology companies ?

I do not, in any way, seek to establish that the Agriculture industry is not important or it does not deserve our attention.
My point is, that even Agriculture in our current age depends ultimately on 21st century technology, then the diversification our Economy deserve is heavy investment in Mathematics, Engineering, Research and Science, and of course Information technology.

The wheel of progress and of sustainable development in our epoch is formed not by till nor crude toil but by Techs and science.

abiodunalasa:
Often time I hear our people, elites and masses alike, raise the question of diversifying our Economy. Truly, we need to do that. But our intended answer, which seems to be Agriculture, to this National question is entirely wrong.
If our Senate floor had been filled with men who are no less concerned about researches into 21st Century governance as much as they are concerned about their paychecks, Chief Audu Ogbe would have not only taken a bow, but also a lesson of his life from them.

Think about it, if Google company alone can provide over 5million jobs to the American people, what about other Internet and technology companies ?

I do not, in any way, seek to establish that the Agriculture industry is not important or it does not deserve our attention.
My point is, that even Agriculture in our current age depends ultimately on 21st century technology, then the diversification our Economy deserve is heavy investment in Mathematics, Engineering, Research and Science, and of course Information technology.

The wheel of progress and of sustainable development in our epoch is formed not by till nor crude toil but by Techs and science.

RK Alasa
a KOWA PARTY candidate in the next Local Government election in Kwara state.

Google cannot create 5 million jobs, that's a misinformation.

We need to invest in agriculture first before technology. Even to use hoe n cutlass begin farm na koko. Agriculture created 300 million jobs in India.

chuna1985:




Google cannot create 5 million jobs, that's a misinformation.

We need to invest in agriculture first before technology. Even to use hoe n cutlass begin farm na koko. Agriculture created 300 million jobs in India.

Hmmmmm, am afraid bro u know nothing or little about this.

You may go online to find out more about the Google job creation in America.

Hoes and cutlass, like in stone age right ?

I doubt if you in fact read this piece with ur....

Nicely said, but believe me, someone in agriculture would also give the same epistle as to why the govt need to diversify into agriculture.

Much has really not been done to Science and technology in this country and we av money being allocated to that aspect from our annual budget(I believe) . Perhaps, we need to voice out.

Our leaders just travel abroad to appreciate the work of tech, science and architecture but do they ever ask how they come about it? That's another view

abiodunalasa:
Often time I hear our people, elites and masses alike, raise the question of diversifying our Economy. Truly, we need to do that. But our intended answer, which seems to be Agriculture, to this National question is entirely wrong.
If our Senate floor had been filled with men who are no less concerned about researches into 21st Century governance as much as they are concerned about their paychecks, Chief Audu Ogbe would have not only taken a bow, but also a lesson of his life from them.

Think about it, if Google company alone can provide over 5million jobs to the American people, what about other Internet and technology companies ?

I do not, in any way, seek to establish that the Agriculture industry is not important or it does not deserve our attention.
My point is, that even Agriculture in our current age depends ultimately on 21st century technology, then the diversification our Economy deserve is heavy investment in Mathematics, Engineering, Research and Science, and of course Information technology.

The wheel of progress and of sustainable development in our epoch is formed not by till nor crude toil but by Techs and science.

RK Alasa
a KOWA PARTY candidate in the next Local Government election in Kwara state.

You speak a lot of truth my dear friend. Agriculture is used as just a cliché even by those who have no idea the difference between underground crops and crops above the ground.

China and India are rated very high because of their advances in technology. Agriculture would give us advantage since it is one of our comparative strength but the truth is, technology will result in better industrialization.

abiodunalasa:




Hmmmmm, am afraid bro u know nothing or little about this.

You may go online to find out more about the Google job creation in America.

Hoes and cutlass, like in stone age right ?

I doubt if you in fact read this piece with ur....

What we need is subvention for agriculture, u don't start building a house from the roof, u start from foundation.

Ur analogy is same as Nigerians who were disappointed that GEJgot us diesel engine trains with normal speeds, they wanted bullet trains...But they don't know about levels of developments.

Hmmm.

I consider myself a student of industrialization, in fact i have read the industrial revolutions over and over again. But i have realized that you cannot have an industrial revolution without an agricultural revolution. A country must be able to feed itself before embarking on industrialization. Besides, the raw materials for industrialization is from agricultural products, so you don't expect our manufactured products to depend on imported raw materials.

Secondly, and most importantly, we lack the technical manpower to embark and sustain an industrial revolution. Our education policy favours administrative education and support services, like accountancy, law, banking, finance, than technical education. We lack a machine tools industry, materials and metallurgical industry, and adequate power. Other crucial elements of industrialization are efficient and cheap transportation system and other infrastructural support. So for now, especially with highly limited resources, agriculture is more important to us than embarking on industrialization.

wirinet:
I consider myself a student of industrialization, in fact i have read the industrial revolutions over and over again. But i have realized that you cannot have an industrial revolution without an agricultural revolution. A country must be able to feed itself before embarking on industrialization. Besides, the raw materials for industrialization is from agricultural products, so you don't expect our manufactured products to depend on imported raw materials.

Secondly, and most importantly, we lack the technical manpower to embark and sustain an industrial revolution. Our education policy favours administrative education and support services, like accountancy, law, banking, finance, than technical education. We lack a machine tools industry, materials and metallurgical industry, and adequate power. Other crucial elements of industrialization are efficient and cheap transportation system and other infrastructural support. So for now, especially with highly limited resources, agriculture is more important to us than embarking on industrialization.

Insightful, no doubt.

Now pls tell me sir, how do our Agriculture get "revolution" without Techs ?

Secondly, as regarding issue of man power, did I in anyway there state that we got to jump in to all that mighty process within the bat of an eye lid ?
Of course I know that the battle is half won when fully prepared.

chuna1985:



What we need is subvention for agriculture, u don't start building a house from the roof, u start from foundation.

Ur analogy is same as Nigerians who were disappointed that GEJgot us diesel engine trains with normal speeds, they wanted bullet trains...But they don't know about levels of developments.

You are right sir... But the fact is our world is now in the beautiful whirlpool of Technology. Every aspect of our life is determined by it. It's practically not possible to say "oh, for now let's forget electricity, Researches, Fast and effective transport system, market coordination, information and communication. We will get back to that when our Cocoa, Sugar cane and palm oil begin to yield profit" .

Why because, this is 21st century , we have a new bath of reality.

wirinet:
I consider myself a student of industrialization, in fact i have read the industrial revolutions over and over again. But i have realized that you cannot have an industrial revolution without an agricultural revolution. A country must be able to feed itself before embarking on industrialization. Besides, the raw materials for industrialization is from agricultural products, so you don't expect our manufactured products to depend on imported raw materials.

Secondly, and most importantly, we lack the technical manpower to embark and sustain an industrial revolution. Our education policy favours administrative education and support services, like accountancy, law, banking, finance, than technical education. We lack a machine tools industry, materials and metallurgical industry, and adequate power. Other crucial elements of industrialization are efficient and cheap transportation system and other infrastructural support. So for now, especially with highly limited resources, agriculture is more important to us than embarking on industrialization.

In fact bro, am afraid you got a static knowledge.
So the realities of the industrial revolution in Europe, that's some 200 years ago, still hold sway in 21st century ?
I don't think so !

Why do you think President Roosevelt sign the " New Deal" policy in the 1930s, a policy that contain Socialist tendencies like Social security, Welfarism, social control of some resources etc ?
It is because the realities then can no longer tolerate absolute Market control.

Sir, knowledge is never static. It grows and evolve as our reality changes. Presently, every aspect of human existence is governed by Technology. That is our 21st century reality. We must wake up to it. Just like our mates, Malaysia , Singapore and Nicaragua , did !

princemillla:
Nicely said, but believe me, someone in agriculture would also give the same epistle as to why the govt need to diversify into agriculture.

Much has really not been done to Science and technology in this country and we av money being allocated to that aspect from our annual budget(I believe) . Perhaps, we need to voice out.

Our leaders just travel abroad to appreciate the work of tech, science and architecture but do they ever ask how they come about it? That's another view

That's if such Agriculturalist see the epistle from a myopic point.
I don't say we should neglect Agriculture.
We are not to neglect Agriculture
for Technology. Of course we need food on our table, and
need to help local farmers keep their job, give loan to
intending farmers, give education and orientation to our
local farmers as well as protect them against the losses that
might come from natural disasters or market forces. But the
point is, even for Agriculture to succeed we need 21st
century technology. So, we need to focus on Technological
advancement without losing sight of Agriculture. It is
possible, if we put our mind and strength to it.

abiodunalasa:




Hmmmmm, am afraid bro u know nothing or little about this.

You may go online to find out more about the Google job creation in America.

Hoes and cutlass, like in stone age right ?

I doubt if you in fact read this piece with ur....

Google has less than a 100,000 employees world wide. Even if you add contractors working for Google, there's no way you'd hit 5 million.

On the long run, tech reduces jobs because people are replaced by machines.

AZeD1:

Google has less than a 100,000 employees world wide. Even if you add contractors working for Google, there's no way you'd hit 5 million.

On the long run, tech reduces jobs because people are replaced by machines.

Oh there, now I got ya point.
But now try to get mine...the 5 million jobs created by Google are not just it's present Full time workers, but the total jobs it created one way or the other since it's establishment.

Now, you consider this piece I just copied from the Website of http://www.businessinsider.com/google-has-57000-employees-2015-7

"Although Google just told Wall Street analysts that its been slowing its hiring in order to clamp down on expenses, Google has still been growing its employee headcount every quarter.

Google finished its second quarter with 57,100 full-time employees, up 18% versus the same quarter last year (in straight numbers, it had 52,000 full-time employees this time last year) and up 3% versus the first quarter this year (it ended the first quarter with 55,400 full-time employee, management said).

And it's hiring a lot right now as the company recruits new college grads, CFO Ruth Porat told Wall Street analysts during the quarterly conference call.

That said, one of Porat's missions is to reign in expenses while still investing in growth, she said.

Barclay's analyst Paul Vogel said in a research note that Google's rate of hiring has slowed over the past few years. An 18% year-over-year uptick in headcount last quarter is a bit less from 20% in Q1 2015, and 22% for FY 2014 — even though that still means Google added over 5,000 people last year alone, which means, on average 1,275 people every 90 days."


Can u imagine such fit by just a company ?

Don't you think that could have stop Musa from enlisting in to the boko haram ?
Or stopped Charles from busting our oil pipe ?
Or stop Kunle from joining the Armed rubber gang ?



Don't get me wrong bro..... I don't mean we should close eye on Agriculture. Of course we need it. But we need the Techs more, even for agriculture sake .

abiodunalasa:


Oh there, now I got ya point.
But now try to get mine...the 5 million jobs created by Google are not just it's present Full time workers, but the total jobs it created one way or the other since it's establishment.

Now, you consider this piece I just copied from the Website of http://www.businessinsider.com/google-has-57000-employees-2015-7

"Although Google just told Wall Street analysts that its been slowing its hiring in order to clamp down on expenses, Google has still been growing its employee headcount every quarter.

Google finished its second quarter with 57,100 full-time employees, up 18% versus the same quarter last year (in straight numbers, it had 52,000 full-time employees this time last year) and up 3% versus the first quarter this year (it ended the first quarter with 55,400 full-time employee, management said).

And it's hiring a lot right now as the company recruits new college grads, CFO Ruth Porat told Wall Street analysts during the quarterly conference call.

That said, one of Porat's missions is to reign in expenses while still investing in growth, she said.

Barclay's analyst Paul Vogel said in a research note that Google's rate of hiring has slowed over the past few years. An 18% year-over-year uptick in headcount last quarter is a bit less from 20% in Q1 2015, and 22% for FY 2014 — even though that still means Google added over 5,000 people last year alone, which means, on average 1,275 people every 90 days."


Can u imagine such fit by just a company ?

Don't you think that could have stop Musa from enlisting in to the boko haram ?
Or stopped Charles from busting our oil pipe ?
Or stop Kunle from joining the Armed rubber gang ?



Don't get me wrong bro..... I don't mean we should close eye on Agriculture. Of course we need it. But we need the Techs more, even for agriculture sake .

One thing you have to remember is that tech companies hire from around the world. Besides tech companies hire educated(1/3 of Google engineers have a Ph.D. , a whole lot dropped from there P.hD. programs to join ) people which is not something you can say about Nigeria for now.

True talk tech move the world

abiodunalasa:
Often time I hear our people, elites and masses alike, raise the question of diversifying our Economy. Truly, we need to do that. But our intended answer, which seems to be Agriculture, to this National question is entirely wrong.
If our Senate floor had been filled with men who are no less concerned about researches into 21st Century governance as much as they are concerned about their paychecks, Chief Audu Ogbe would have not only taken a bow, but also a lesson of his life from them.

Think about it, if Google company alone can provide over 5million jobs to the American people, what about other Internet and technology companies ?

I do not, in any way, seek to establish that the Agriculture industry is not important or it does not deserve our attention.
My point is, that even Agriculture in our current age depends ultimately on 21st century technology, then the diversification our Economy deserve is heavy investment in Mathematics, Engineering, Research and Science, and of course Information technology.

The wheel of progress and of sustainable development in our epoch is formed not by till nor crude toil but by Techs and science.

RK Alasa
a KOWA PARTY candidate in the next Local Government election in Kwara state.

is it hungry ppl that will Google. you need actual physical goods to 'tech' up
agric is 1% of USA GDP but carrier another 16% of GDP on it's shoulders (transport, tractors manufacture, fertiliser, mining of fertiliser, sales,food processing)
can't have corn flakes without corn
you need agric for corn
same with white collar jobs
can't have them without agric,mining and manufacturing
if agric dies it brings down it's downlines with it
if it's boosted it's downlines are boosted also
you spend $1 dollars on agric you have multiplier of 10
you spend on 'tech 'you just have lots of jobless techs

abiodunalasa:




In fact bro, am afraid you got a static knowledge.
So the realities of the industrial revolution in Europe, that's some 200 years ago, still hold sway in 21st century ?
I don't think so !

I have static knowledge? that is a laugh. I am not on nairaland to boast of my knowledge, i am here to exchange ideas and maybe influence policy decision that would lead to a better Nigeria.

I have studied the industrial revolutions, that started in England, moved to continental Europe, to the US, to Japan and most recently to China, and i can tell you one common thread, they mastered agriculture before ever starting out on an industrial revolution. Europe embarked on colonization of Africa simply because they needed cheap raw materials (especially agricultural) to drive their industries. As i said earlier, we cannot embark on an industrial revolution without an agricultural base. As it is, we import fish, poultry, fruits, rice, beans and lots of our food from abroad. All the industrialized countries are net exporter of food. We cannot industrialize on imported raw materials and imported food.

The reason you people are parroting industrialization is because of free oil from the nigerdelta, with which we import food from abroad, if oil dies out or becomes less than $10 per barrel, nobody would tell the government before they take agriculture serious, except you want us to live on food aid from the industrialized nations.

Why do you think President Roosevelt sign the " New Deal" policy in the 1930s, a policy that contain Socialist tendencies like Social security, Welfarism, social control of some resources etc ?
It is because the realities then can no longer tolerate absolute Market control.

I honesty do not understand how the quote above relate to the topic under discussion, please explain.

Sir, knowledge is never static. It grows and evolve as our reality changes. Presently, every aspect of human existence is governed by Technology. That is our 21st century reality. We must wake up to it. Just like our mates, Malaysia , Singapore and Nicaragua , did !

No body said knowledge is static, but evolution of societies follow a static pattern. Societies evolve from hunter/gatherer to agricultural to industrial and finally to information societies, it cannot be the reverse.

wirinet:


I have static knowledge? that is a laugh. I am not on nairaland to boast of my knowledge, i am here to exchange ideas and maybe influence policy decision that would lead to a better Nigeria.




Thank you sir, for the readiness you gave in exchanging ideas.

I have studied the industrial revolutions, that started in England, moved to continental Europe, to the US, to Japan and most recently to China, and i can tell you one common thread, they mastered agriculture before ever starting out on an industrial revolution. Europe embarked on colonization of Africa simply because they needed cheap raw materials (especially agricultural) to drive their industries. As i said earlier, we cannot embark on an industrial revolution without an agricultural base. As it is, we import fish, poultry, fruits, rice, beans and lots of our food from abroad. All the industrialized countries are net exporter of food. We cannot industrialize on imported raw materials and imported food.

The reason you people are parroting industrialization is because of free oil from the nigerdelta, with which we import food from abroad, if oil dies out or becomes less than $10 per barrel, nobody would tell the government before they take agriculture serious, except you want us to live on food aid from the industrialized nations.


I honesty do not understand how the quote above relate to the topic under discussion, please explain.



The quotes tells you that the knowledge that guide us yesterday may be too blind to do such again today.


No body said knowledge is static, but evolution of societies follow a static pattern. Societies evolve from hunter/gatherer to agricultural to industrial and finally to information societies, it cannot be the reverse.

Lastly, I hope this gives you more light on my stand.
We are not to neglect Agriculture
for Technology. Of course we need food on our table, and
need to help local farmers keep their job, give loan to
intending farmers, give education and orientation to our
local farmers as well as protect them against the losses
that
might come from natural disasters or market forces. But
the
point is, even for Agriculture to succeed we need 21st
century technology. So, we need to focus on Technological
advancement without losing sight of Agriculture. It is
possible, if we put our mind and strength to it.

Investment in technology would difinately take a long time to yield returns unlike agric where perenial crop yield interests in 12 months.

Technology is the key, but not a push to divest in agric

@Op
You have a inadequate knowledge of development and and how societies develop.
If you compare the share of agriculture and technology to the nations GDP it will be in in the order of 40% vs 1%.

If you invest in technology and get 200% growth yearly that is very wonderful growth but will only grow GDP by 0.5%

But a modest 15% growth in agricultural output yearly will grow the GDP by a whooping 6% annually.

Most importantly, development should not be in silos, or self-contained, meaning a smart government will not say diversify to agriculture and absolutely neglect the linkages to other sectors of the economy particularly technology. The thinking should not be to import all the machinery, chemicals, fertilizers to be used as input from India, China, Europe. We must encourage the local development and production of those inputs or else we will still remain at the mercy of the suppliers of the inputs and we will never get the full benefit of our investment.
That is where the need for further investment in science and technology should be directed.

If we cannot wrap our heads around the relatively simple and matured technology necessary for agricultural production, we will fail in any competition with established information age societies.

Science and technology is trans-disciplinary, meaning the knowledge gained from one sector can be easily translated into another sector and you start from simpler methods to more complex tasks. That's why toddlers don't start out as university undergraduates but go through the normal process of education, but, the with planning and diligence you can leap-frog several steps by not repeating the exact same mistakes of the pioneers.

abiodunalasa:



Lastly, I hope this gives you more light on my stand.
We are not to neglect Agriculture
for Technology. Of course we need food on our table, and
need to help local farmers keep their job, give loan to
intending farmers, give education and orientation to our
local farmers as well as protect them against the losses
that
might come from natural disasters or market forces. But
the
point is, even for Agriculture to succeed we need 21st
century technology. So, we need to focus on Technological
advancement without losing sight of Agriculture. It is
possible, if we put our mind and strength to it.

The way you use the term technology is highly ambiguous. I thought you are talking about information technology because you made reference to Google. Technology is simply the application of science, so from agricultural sciences, you have agricultural technology and from information sciences we have information technology.

Man had embraced technology since the stone age, so it will be impractical to practice agriculture without the use of some technology, the question should be what level of that technology.
As i said earlier, our problem is our educational policy and priorities, we lay emphasis on humanities, administration and social sciences to the detriment of pure sciences and technology. So our agricultural technology is at best rudimentary. We lack appropriate machinery, good seedlings and poor harvest and storage facilities to produce food crops (and even cash crops) competitively. We rely on local illiterate farmers while we have millions of graduates roaming the streets.

I am not saying we should jettison information technology altogether , but the reality is if we want to become food sufficient, get our youths employed and start on the road to industrialization, we must embrace an agricultural revolution. We would be wasting our time trying to to compete with the US and western Europe in terms of information technological services.

wirinet:


The way you use the term technology is highly ambiguous. I thought you are talking about information technology because you made reference to Google. Technology is simply the application of science, so from agricultural sciences, you have agricultural technology and from information sciences we have information technology.

Man had embraced technology since the stone age, so it will be impractical to practice agriculture without the use of some technology, the question should be what level of that technology.
As i said earlier, our problem is our educational policy and priorities, we lay emphasis on humanities, administration and social sciences to the detriment of pure sciences and technology. So our agricultural technology is at best rudimentary. We lack appropriate machinery, good seedlings and poor harvest and storage facilities to produce food crops (and even cash crops) competitively. We rely on local illiterate farmers while we have millions of graduates roaming the streets.

I am not saying we should jettison information technology altogether , but the reality is if we want to become food sufficient, get our youths employed and start on the road to industrialization, we must embrace an agricultural revolution. We would be wasting our time trying to to compete with the US and western Europe in terms of information technological services.

Apart from lack of government support for sciences i still think there is a high level of timidity and low level acumen from trained scientist and technologists in Nigeria. There are enormous problems needing simple technical solutions but our engineers are skewed to looking for office job and not to proffer or develop solutions to such gaping problems.

Agreed that there are huge disincentive to local production of technical goods and solution, but that doesn't explain the almost complete absence of trained engineers in local commercial equipment design and fabrication. I am yet to come across a young food scientist setting up a private laboratory to develop and market local food and snacks in modern packaging. Many end up working in banks or run away to advanced nations.

And we all join the rat race to own a 30-year mortgage, car payments and become tied to a job at the productive lifetime.

[size=13pt]OP

i am a computer Science student, and I agree

we need to teach our youths Object Oriented languages to creat a mini tech eco system[/size]

wirinet:
I consider myself a student of industrialization, in fact i have read the industrial revolutions over and over again. But i have realized that you cannot have an industrial revolution without an agricultural revolution. A country must be able to feed itself before embarking on industrialization. Besides, the raw materials for industrialization is from agricultural products, so you don't expect our manufactured products to depend on imported raw materials.

Secondly, and most importantly, we lack the technical manpower to embark and sustain an industrial revolution. Our education policy favours administrative education and support services, like accountancy, law, banking, finance, than technical education. We lack a machine tools industry, materials and metallurgical industry, and adequate power. Other crucial elements of industrialization are efficient and cheap transportation system and other infrastructural support. So for now, especially with highly limited resources, agriculture is more important to us than embarking on industrialization.

While i don't mean to challenge your vast knowledge,

I still think tech is the way to go,

a Beginner, an average Tech Developer in Ikeja makes 100k+ (that's just to be fair)

How many farmers can boast of such without having to do some arduous work.

Besides Agro is Stressful, you have think about lots of variables Humidity, temperature, weather condition, pest etc

A tech savvy needs only to sit in his office sipping coffee in a bahd AC .

I don't have much knowledge about how this affects the baseline(GDP) but i honestly think Tech is the way North.


Please Educate me if Necessary, am open to knowledge