The Federal Government has reiterated its commitment to diversify the economy from reliance on the oil sector to the agriculture sector. Mr Greyne Anosike, a director in Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development stated this in a statement issued in Abuja.
According to the statement, the minister stated this when Prof. Oyewole Tomori, President, Nigeria Academy of Science (NAS) led a delegation to his office. It quoted Tijani as saying that the country should begin to marshal an economic plan as crude oil and gas dwindle in the global economic calculations.
‘’The repeated call for diversifying the economy is not a political gimmick, but a purely economic forecast. Nations should begin to evolve long term master plans as oil begins to play less critical role in the affairs of nations in the next decade,’’ the statement said.
It added that the minister observed that most countries have found alternative sources of energy and aggressively embarking on agriculture using modern technology. It is also said that the minister called on the association to evaluate the role it will play to resolve these challenges and come up with a comprehensive proposal to the ministry.
The statement said that the association should take advantage of its agricultural research findings to move the country forward. It stated that the Federal Government has started planning ahead with the approval of 13 airports across the country as perishable cargo terminals and creation of Staple Crop Processing Zones (SCPZ).
The statement quoted Tomori as saying that the association was in the ministry to help with evidence based data driven and scientifically verifiable materials that could help the agriculture sector. It said that the association was capable of evaluating facilities, survey available manpower needs and expertise in the area of documentation, cassava utilisation among others.
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