Sir: Prior to the discovery of crude oil, Agriculture has since time immemorial been Nigeria’s source of income. It provides human’s needs like food, clothing, shelter, employment among others. However, the discovery of oil changed that narrative leading to mass exodus of the populace from agriculture to the oil sector. Dependence upon oil caused Nigeria and Nigerians untold hardship as there comes a time when it could no longer cater for all and sundry. The importance of agriculture became evident when there was a general and global fall in the price of crude oil and Nigeria found itself in an economic recession.
To avert future recurrence of that ugly trend, Governor Bala Abdulkadir Mohammed of Bauchi State has taken a humongous step which resulted in signing a Memorandum of Understanding with OCP Africa to resuscitate the Agriculture sector and promote food production. The signing of the MoU was sequel to the meeting held by the governor, alongside stakeholders of the OCP Africa on 27th August, 2020. This shows that Mohammed accord utmost priority to agriculture since it is one of the important sectors to everyone. In furtherance to his agricultural drive, the governor paid a working visit on the 28th August, 2020 to management of NEXIM Bank in Abuja.
The visit was to partner with the bank for the promotion of export business in the state. During the visit, Nexim Bank promised to donate N2 billion to Bauchi to promote the exportation of agricultural and solid mineral commodities through SME’s. In a similar development, the governor also paid a working visit to an International Skills Acquisition Centre of the CSS farms on 29th August, 2020. Mohammed was at the CSS farms to re-establish partnership with the company. The governor, who addressed stakeholders at the farms, stated that in collaboration with the company, Bauchi State government will train its youths on entrepreneurship to enable them to become useful and successful members of the society. He appealed for the support of the CSS farms to enable his administration achieve its objectives in the sector of agriculture. The Chairman of the CSS farms, Mr. John Kennedy, expressed gratitude to the governor for the visit, saying that the company is ever ready to assist his administration to deliver as expected.
The CSC Farms is situated on 800 hectares of Organic Agriculture Value chain including: Fishery, Green House Farming, automated poultry with over 5000 birds, produced over 3000 crates of eggs daily, in-house feed and organic soil production, independent water and power facilities, state of the art silo and rice mill, classroom and boarding facilities for both male and female students, hydrophilic among others.
Indeed, with these blueprints for agriculture, Bauchi State is on the right track and will make history.
• Mahmud Yahaya.