BEING AN ONLINE LECTURE DELIVERED ON TODAY'S LEADERS FORUM 17TH ONLINE PRESENTATION AND DIALOGUE ON "AGRICULTURE; THE WAY FORWARD" - COMR. OJO EMMANUEL OLUWATOMINIYI.

BEING AN ONLINE LECTURE DELIVERED ON TODAY'S LEADERS FORUM 17TH ONLINE PRESENTATION AND DIALOGUE.

SPEAKER : COMR. OJO EMMANUEL OLUWATOMINIYI.

TOPIC : AGRICULTURE ; THE WAY FORWARD.

Introduction
Agriculture is a subject in school which has the easiest of all definitions, "agriculture is the planting of crops and rearing of animals for human consumption". It is a simple and straight forward definition, but as simple as it is, it can help solve and reduce the complexity of Nigeria economy. Nigeria as a country was so much self-sufficient in food production before the emergence of oil in the 1960's. We left the green vegetation and went for the black crude oil. No wonder our economy is close to black. We left the primary and went to the secondary out of greed, due to bad managerial leadership. The reign of corruption started from the discovery of the black crude oil.
No matter how bad the economy is, there is still a repair. That is why I would define Agriculture as "cultivating of crops and rearing of animals to rehabilitate the country and provide food for the country". Nigeria has huge agricultural potential, with over 84 million hectares of arable land for which only 40% is cultivated, with a population of over 160 million people, making Nigeria Africa's largest population. The country has some of the richest natural resources for Agricultural production in the world. Not, surprisingly, Nigeria used to be a major player in the global Agricultural market as the world's largest producer of groundnuts and palm oil in the 1960s and the second largest exporter of cocoa but all remains a history.
Agriculture in Nigeria as a key role needed to save the country from recession but it is currently not being used. For example Nigeria has a huge population of over 160 million, twice more than the population of Zimbabwe and South Africa combined. Just imagine that much population how we consume Rice, we are one of the highest Rice consuming nation in the world, at least a family eat Rice in a day. We spend Billion's of Naira yearly just to import Rice, Imagine the amount of money we are giving out. That is just one out of the crop we import, we also have importation of fish, cooking oils, wheat to mention but few and even tomatoes.
Over the past few years, Nigeria Agricultural sector have undergone some transformation which is encouraging but not enough. The Government is setting up agencies to support and promote farming so as to increase food production and reduce the importation of food. Sir Albert Einstein said and I quote "in the midst of difficulty lies opportunity" so why don't You and I take advantage of this opportunity, not only to boost the country economy but to also boost our income. You can start from any sector, Agriculture is so broad that it can employ the whole nation. We have Agricultural Extensionist,  Animal Production, Soil Scientists, Agricultural Technolog few. It is sadden that most student in Agriculture related department were only transferred there because they couldn't meet up for the course they have chosen. In the past few months some people ask me of my course of study, I m sstold them "Agricultural Engineering", I was amazed with there reply, they said our profession is the future of the country which gives me joy. So if you are a student trying to choose a course of study in any higher institution Agriculture related courses might be the best for you.
Further more, I discovered that farming as a profession does not interfare with your field profession. For example being a lawyer doesn't stop you from being a farmer. So the punch line there is, anyone can be a farmer. You can own a plantain, rice, beans, oil-palm farm or whatever crop you are interested in. The most important aspect is let us grow green to save the country. For example rice is a high demand in the country today. Every family eats rice almost everyday. Any Entrepreneur/Agripreneur in Nigeria who goes into rice farming and gets it right is sure to be smiling to the bank. Currently a bag of rice is in range of #13,000 to #21,000. A farmer who have the ability to produce 1,000 bags in a year is getting noting less than #20,000,000 in a year. As an Agripreneur you should know that to get that result one would need a good deal of capital to do that. The question now is how do we get for that? Government bodies, private organization and Goodwill investors. I am also looking for who can invest in me also.

To crown it all, the need to reform the agriculture sector cannot be over publicized as stated in a recommendation by *Farokun I.A. (2009)* in his thesis titled Globalization and Sustainable development (A case study of Nigeria)
• A shift in monoculture economy I.e. depends on one means of nation money
• Provision of food and raw material through development of Agriculture
• Agriculture sector is also capable of reducing the country's level of unemployment on the account that the sector is labor intensive
•  Agriculture will also curb the effect of Rural-urban migration which will help to make life easier for people both in the rural and urban area
• Agriculture will do help the government to make more effort in developing the degrading infrastructural facilities throughout the nation.
• Development of the agricultural sector will also help in improving other sectors and thereby curbing the level of existing curroption in the country.
“Agriculture is our wisest pursuit, because it will in the end contribute most to real wealth, good morals, and happiness.”
Agriculture have an endless effect on our economy. So the country(Nigeria) is depending on you and I to do something good with the rich land of the Nation.

Thanks for reading.