Agriculture is the surest way to national development – Expert

By Akintunde Jacobs, Akure

An Agricbusiness expert with the International Institute of Tropical Agriculture (IITA), Ibadan, Oyo State, Mr. John Obaniyi has disclosed that for the country to overcome her numerous challenges, it must go back to agriculture.

Obaniyi, who disclosed this on Monday while speaking on ‘Agricbusiness opportunities along value chain’ to the 2021 Batch ‘B’ (Stream II) corps members at NYSC Permanent Orientation Camp, Ikare Akoko, Ondo state, said for the country to ‘remain green with envy,’ everyone must go back to farming which according to him, the technology has made easy.

He said, “Gentlemen corps members, paid employment or investment in various sectors of economy is profitable but if you really want to be at the top and remain relevant, any sector in the agric world is the best place to be.

“The world population is growing in leaps and bounds on daily basis and everyone must eat. This is an indication that whatever you become in life whether, Engineers, Doctors, Communicators, Scientist, Teachers, Footballers, Captains of Industries and career, Public Servants, you must eat good food every blessed day.

“The world has gone digital and with the technology that has been made available by scientists, researchers, technologists, engineers and the allied professionals, the era of hoe and cutlass is gone for good.

“You don’t need background in any of the branches of agriculture before you can venture into either small, medium or large scale farming as agricbusiness opportunities has made things easy and you will never caught napping or unprepared.”

According to him, the IITA in partnership with NYSC is training corps members in various fields on how they can embrace the value chain in the agricbusiness to boost food production for local consumption as well as export finished products to enhance foreign exchange earning.