In this period of heightened anxiety, we can draw lessons from the Chinese ideogram for crisis, which is a mixture of danger and opportunity. For the South-West in particular, this must not be just about interventions and palliatives. We must look into the future and prepare. Such preparations must include a serious examination of our sustenance post-COVID-19. This means that we must take a look at the issue of food security and agro-industrial development in the region. The success of the Amotekun initiative has altered the territory of the discourse irreversibly in favour of regional cooperation and integration. Looking at the intervention in Ekiti State it is clear that much could have been done in Ekiti and the South-West, if the region had continued with the agriculture development thrust of the 1950s. This is unfortunate. For right now, it is a herculean task to ask people to obey the very indispensable stay-at-home order without food security. This why agricultural policies must be on the front burner after the successful acceptance of Amotekun. We need, as a matter of urgency, a Food Security Network.
What the South-West lost after the abrogation of the 1963 Constitution in 1966, was the gradual transformation of agriculture into a modern framework by transiting the peasantry into commercial farming. At the time, the key transformational instruments were the commodities board and the Cooperative Bank, founded in 1953. In tandem with creative ministers such as Gabriel Akin Deko, a tremendous forward thrust was achieved. The region also had under its operating framework an Agent General in London, who was a sub-ambassador but in reality was the region’s chief export coordinator.
We need a regional revival of what we had in the 1950s and 60s. Commodities exchanges must be set up in the region through public, private partnerships to modernise the defunct commodities board, which the structural adjustment programme ill-advisedly abolished with catastrophic effects. The States must be involved as strategic partners with the private sector, since they control the land and will have an input in licensing, as well as opening up the rural production areas with the construction of rural roads. The South-West will, in this way, be able to improve its rural economy by introducing science into agriculture, providing storage facilities, ensuring guaranteed minimum farm gate prices and triggering off the synergy that will lead to the establishment of cottage industries. All of this, of course, will be done through the commodity exchanges. As the region transits into an export-oriented agro-industrial powerhouse, export offices will be opened abroad.
What the South-West lost after the abrogation of the 1963 Constitution in 1966, was the gradual transformation of agriculture into a modern framework by transiting the peasantry into commercial farming. At the time, the key transformational instruments were the commodities board and the Cooperative Bank, founded in 1953. In tandem with creative ministers such as Gabriel Akin Deko, a tremendous forward thrust was achieved. The region also had under its operating framework an Agent General in London, who was a sub-ambassador but in reality was the region’s chief export coordinator.
We need a regional revival of what we had in the 1950s and 60s. Commodities exchanges must be set up in the region through public, private partnerships to modernise the defunct commodities board, which the structural adjustment programme ill-advisedly abolished with catastrophic effects. The States must be involved as strategic partners with the private sector, since they control the land and will have an input in licensing, as well as opening up the rural production areas with the construction of rural roads. The South-West will, in this way, be able to improve its rural economy by introducing science into agriculture, providing storage facilities, ensuring guaranteed minimum farm gate prices and triggering off the synergy that will lead to the establishment of cottage industries. All of this, of course, will be done through the commodity exchanges. As the region transits into an export-oriented agro-industrial powerhouse, export offices will be opened abroad.
https://opinion.premiumtimesng.com/2020 ... a-olateju/
- Food-2.jpg (80.81 KiB) Viewed 1711 times