President Goodluck Jonathan on Monday explained what stopped the “Operations Feed the Nation” and the “Green Revolution’ ’from making the desired impact on the food production in the country.
He spoke while flagging off the National Schools Agriculture Programme (NSAP) at the Banquet Hall of the State House, Abuja
According to him, the “Green Revolution”and Operation Feed the Nation” might have failed because they were not properly articulated.
He said: “This is not just one of those programmes that we have been having. As a nation, we have had the Green Revolution programme launched, we participated in that. We also had Operation Feed the Nation. But at the end of the day, probably, it was not properly articulated, it just followed the political class and disappeared.
Noting that the NSAP is aimed at developing a new generation of Nigerian youth agriculture enthusiasts, he said: “This programme is actually to make sure that our students will no longer take agriculture as a form of punishment in schools but they will see agriculture as a business and a way of making money.”
He said that his administration was intent on making agriculture a very profitable business venture not only to make the nation food sufficient but to also tackle the challenges of youth unemployment.
Stressing that the NSAP is expected to build a crop of Under-20 Nigerians adequately motivated and trained to live as great agriculture industrialists and enterprenuers, he listed some of Nigeria’s business and industrial moguls like Aliko Dangote and Tony Elumelu who are venturing into agriculture business.
He said: “We need the Under-20s to link up with the Dangotes, Elumelus and other big Nigerian entrepreneurs. This is part of our strategy to tackle youth unemployment. We are developing agriculture Super Eagles.”
He promised to meet once a year at an agriculture stakeholders’ conference with participants of the NSAP programmes who will be drawn from several schools across the country.
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