Governor Ben Ayade of Cross River State has called on the federal government to emphasize technology-driven agriculture as it can boost income for individuals, reduce unemployment, banditry and restiveness.
He tasked the government to realize that the country cannot keep importing all manners of foods that local farmers can produce.
Speaking at CSS Farms in Gora, near Abuja, Ayade said the basis of all the insecurity in Nigeria is characterized by unemployment.
The governor said agriculture and agro-industrialization hold the key to a prosperous future, adding that it was time for the country to fully return to agriculture, devoid of the usual primitivist mentality if the country must rise beyond her present economic quagmire.
He said all forms of industrialization start with agro-industrialization, emphasizing that Nigeria must replace her primordial and cumbersome methods of agriculture with mechanized farming.