Legal luminary, Chief Afe Babalola (SAN) has called on the Federal Government to revive the moribund farm settlement across the country to ensure food security in the country.
The founder, Afe Babalola University, Ado-Ekiti, (ABUAD) who was named the “African Man of The Year In Food Security” said the government should support Nigerian farmers not only to ensure large scale production of food crops but also cash crops.
This he said will bring about the revival of the cocoa in the West, Rubber and palm oil in Edo and Delta states and the groundnut pyramids of the north in those days.
The elder statesman stated this at a press conference held in ABUAD on his selection as the 2024 African Man of the Year in Food Security by the Initiative For Green Sustainability.
Dwelling on the importance of agriculture in human existence across all cultures, ABUAD founder who noted that the world’s population is increasing at a geometric rate said, “Yet, land remains static and man on planet earth must eat, failure to eat will lead to death.”
Chief Babalola also stressed the need for all local governments to be getting their allocation directly from the federal governments and not through their respective state governments.
He counselled the local governments to assemble farm implements which they could hire to farmers at subsidized rate and produce seedlings for sale to farmers at low prices.
“The government should revive the old farm settlements by Awolowo in the former Western Region and extend it to other states in the country.
“As part of my resolve to encourage agriculture, I reduce school fees of students studying agriculture by 50 percent in our university. In addition, I give seed money of N250,000 to every graduate in agriculture from Afe Babalola University.’’
