Empowering youth/women through agriculture: Open letter to Mr. President

Your Excellency, Nigeria has the highest population of youth in the world and a median age of 18.1 years. About 70% of the population is under thirty, and 42% is under the age of fifteen. The overall quality of life for the population is at risk of food insecurity made worse by the prevailing economic situation of the country.

Mr President, permit me to remind you that during your campaign , your promised an “Agbado Revolution ‘’ that promises to provide maize and Cassava in abundance. That campaign statement is clearly elucidated in your Renewed Hope manifesto titled; “Plant the right seeds, feed an entire nation.” As youths, we have had first-hand experience of the impact of agriculture on the socio-economic development of our rural communities despite government neglect.

Agriculture was the mainstay of Nigeria’s economy before the discovery of crude oil. From 1960 to 1969, the sector accounted for an average of 57.0% of GDP and generated 64.5% of export earnings.

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From 1970 to the late 2000s, the sector’s contribution to GDP and export earnings steadily declined, because Nigeria’s focus shifted to petroleum exploration. In 2023, Agriculture contributed to 30% of GDP. Agriculture is a key for Nigeria’s economy after oil, agriculture provides livelihood for many Nigerians whereas the wealth generated from oil is only restricted to a privileged few.

Mr President, every farming season, mineral fertilizers are distributed to farmers across the country albeit late into the farming season with insignificant impact on food production that farming season and an overarching degradation of our land. Lands which were hitherto fertile and produce healthy crop yields have been rendered non-productive.

Chemical fertilizer contributes to soil acidification and soil crust, thereby reducing the content of organic matter, humus content, beneficial species, stunting plant growth, altering the pH of the soil, growing pests, and even leading to the release of greenhouse gases.
And these have been the only alternative provided by various agricultural intervention programmes across all relevant agencies in the country.

Your Excellency, the “Agbado revolution” must be run disruptively to provide the needed result amidst this biting hunger in the land within the shortest period possible and must be sustainable. Women and youth should form the core of this project that must include backyard farming, cluster farming etc. all year round that can engage over fifteen million youths and women across the 774 local governments in Nigeria with immediate result.

Mr President with a growing population like ours and a fragile economy with food inflation rate hitting almost 30%, an all-time high, it leaves the country susceptible to crisis at any time. No palliatives could quell the lingering crisis this could brew in the country and palliative will not and can never be a sustainable solution to help build our GDP and solve our immediate food insecurity before Q2 2024.

This is a clarion call to your Excellency to initiate a presidential special project for women and youth in agri-preneurs for income generation, foreign exchange, and food security in Nigeria.
Mr. President, the key integrals of the programmes and its long-term impacts on sustainable agriculture and food security in Nigeria is capable of boosting our GDP by over 40% and grant us immediate food security within three months of its implementation.

Your Excellency, we can affirm that you mean well for Nigeria but your wishes without an adequate result will only reduce your administration’s goodwill to naught. The renewed hope under which you campaigned and you were voted for was our path towards economic and agricultural sustainability across the country and we still believe in your ability to turn things around despite the hunger and excruciating hardship in the land.

Your Excellency, if the senate can approve N212bn to install 1150 streetlights, then voting a N100bn for this intervention would be a worthy investment in food security for the nation. We have the potential to be the food basket of Africa and the world with the right interventions and guided by proper implementations.

Malabu, writes from Kaduna.

Source: leadership news