Experts have attributed poor infrastructural development and low level of research as some of the factors militating against the achievement of food security in the country. They said beside farmers and herders clashes, there is banditry, lamenting that farmers no longer go to farms to avoid being kidnapped. They made this assertion while featuring on the Federal University of Agriculture, Abeokuta (FUNAAB), Ogun State radio station, FUNAAB Radio 89.5FM live interactive programme, Boiling Point. According to Prof. Abdulrazaq Adebowale of the Department of Food Science and Technology, College of Food Sciences and Human Ecology (COLFHEC) of FUNAAB, government should step up research and development in the country and be sincere about it, saying this would drastically improve farmers’ yields.
He charged farmers to stop replying on rain-fed agriculture and embrace irrigation, adding that there were several River Basin Authorities spread across the country. The Don urged Nigerians to move from agriculture-for-passion to agriculture-for-business. “The technology we are using in the country is another challenge. Higher percentage of farmers in the country is peasant farmers, and cutlass-and-hoe farming cannot take the country anywhere”, he maintained. In the same vein, the Managing Director, So Gold Enterprises, Farmer Ayopo Somefun, called on farmers to look for high yielding agricultural varieties, maintaining that this would reduce the cost of production and increase their revenue. He said the population of the country was growing at 2.55% while food production was growing at 1.33%. Farmer Somefun warned that any nation that cannot provide adequate food for its citizenry was endangering their lives.