Why agric won’t create more jobs – Perm sec

The Permanent Secretary in the Niger State Ministry of Agriculture, Alhaji Muhammadu Ibrahim, on Friday, said the much talked about creation of jobs, using agriculture, may not materialise unless steps are taken to modernise farming.

Ibrahim made said this in Minna while addressing newsmen as part of activities to mark this year’s World Food Day.

“Due to non-modernisation of farming and the absence of basic social infrastructure in the rural areas, farming still remains unattractive to the youths, thereby leading to rural-urban migration,” he said.

He said as a result of the unattractive nature of agriculture in the country, farming was now generally undertaken by the aged, a development that posed the problem of succession

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The permanent secretary identified the inability of small scale farmers to access credit facilities from the bank of agriculture, commercial banks, specialised non-government organisations and international donor agencies as other reasons that would not help the youths to embrace farming.

“Limited access to basic agricultural inputs, such as improved seeds and seedling, fertilizers, tractors, bulldozers, animal traction and agro chemicals’ are also hindrances to engagement of youth in agriculture.

“Only five per cent of agricultural activities have been mechanised and only about 10 per cent use animal tractions. Access is constrained by high cost of these inputs and inadequate supplies,” he said.

Ibrahim, however, pledged that the Niger State Government would continue to make farming attractive to the youths despite all the challenges.

Reviewing the activities of the ministry in the last five months, he explained that over 15,000 metric tons of assorted fertilizers were sold to 150,000 farmers in the 274 wards in the state, adding that the fertilizers were sold at 50 per cent lesser than the market price.