NAN-AE-68
Diversification
Omu-Aran (Kwara), Aug. 9, 2017 (NAN) Mr Oluwasina Adelodun, an agricultural extension officer, has called for an inclusive growth agricultural mechanism, as a panacea to achieve the nation’s desired economic diversification.
Adelodun made this call on Wednesday in Omu-Aran, Irepodun Local Government Area of Kwara in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN).
He noted that the dwindling global oil regime had challenged the government to prioritise agriculture as a means to diversify and boost the nation’s economy.
Adelodun said such an agricultural mechanism was needed as a catalyst to trigger and catapult the economy away from recession, in which over-dependence on oil had landed the country.
The expert defined inclusive growth as economic growth with a wider access to sustainable socio-economic opportunities for the majority while it would also protect the vulnerable in the society.
According to him, inclusive growth in line with ‘Agrifood’ system, avoids creating a situation whereby the rich is getting richer and the poor is getting poorer.
‘‘It has been observed that while the government keeps boasting of ever increasing GDP; what the man on the street notices is ever increasing poverty among those at the ‘bottom of the pyramid’’.
‘‘Even though, telecommunications, financial and banking services, construction and private-investment inflows have increased substantially since 1999; most of the benefits of the high growth rates so far achieved had yet to reach the rural poor.
‘‘This is because they do not play in the fields where this GDP growths are being reported and thus, have been abandoned to their poverty,’’ he stressed.
Adelodun opined that substantial growth in the agriculture sector would need to be stimulated and sustained in the efforts to reverse the aforementioned anomaly.
‘‘Doing this shall require plugging the country’s predominantly smallholder farmers into mark-oriented value chains.
‘‘This will in turn provide goods and services to local, regional and global markets, thus creating wealth for both the families and the nation,’’ he said. (NAN)
ISHO/MOL/YEMI
Edited by Mustapha Lamidi/Yemi Idris-Aduloju