Stakeholders in the agriculture sector in Nigeria have called on the Federal Government (FG) to ensure greater inclusion of the country’s rural farming communities in its activities.

According to them, despite the various challenges affecting the Nigerian agriculture sector including lack of good road networks, it was important for the government to include more rural farming villages in its activities in order to move the sector forward.

The experts made the call during the recent Africa Agri Expo held in Lagos.

They also urged the government to invest in rural infrastructure development so as to bolster private sector investment in agriculture as well as facilitate the linkage between agriculture and industry.

Also, the stakeholders called for the expansion of Nigeria’s agricultural policy programmes in a bid to improve food security.

The General Manager of International Business, Sonalika Tractors, Rupesh Khanna, during his speech observed that agricultural mechanisation was the only way to feed about 200 million people and get surplus for agro-allied export.

“Nigeria has the ninth-largest arable land with currently 7,000 tractors; based on the size of the farmland, Nigeria should have nothing less than 70,000 fully-functional tractors,” he said.

SOURCE: AGRONIGERIA