I just saw this write-up of mine written 3years ago. I thought of sharing it.

THE MAP OF HISTORY: AGRICULTURE OUR FUTURE
As I trace back to history, there was a time where food was in abundant.
God created the earth with lot of animals that serve as meat and plants, both for food and herbs. They were happy to live
because food, clothing and shelter which are the basic needs of man were
satisfied.
Farming was so lucrative and appreciated due to its relevance to man; numbers of sheep, goats and land were measure of wealth then, but the story
had changed in the 21st century.
Due to technology advancement and
civilisation, agriculture is becoming an occupation for the so-called frustrated beings that need to earn a living with their miserable condition. A farmer has no more feather on his cap because he is being considered as a lower class citizen (Nigeria as a case study).
The trend of agriculture in Nigeria can be illustrated as
follows: In 1958,
oil was discovered in oloibiri in Nigeria, but full exploration started in early 1980's.Then, Nigeria was a 'green' nation producing various food and cash crops which earned us a good foreign exchange.
Besides, unemployment rate was very low because agricultural sector employed up to 70% labor force both skilled and unskilled. Furthermore, majority of farmers were willing to practice farming because of the incentives, that is, value added from the Government. Cocoa, yam, cassava, tomatoes, palm oil were some of the crops cultivated and the comparative advantage was high over all other countries. There were a lot of projects done with revenue generated from agricultural sector such as The
Cocoa house in Ibadan, University of ife now Obafemi Awolowo university, groundnut pyramids in the North etc, and standard of living was encouraging.
Early 1960s to 1970s, food production tends to decrease because of the
removal of the incentives on Agriculture, then diverting it to oil sector in the name
of greener pasture;improving the economy which in turns affected farmers’ income.
During Obasanjo regime 1976-1979, Agriculture was strengthened a little
through introduction of the land tenure system (policy) and the operation
feed the nation (OFN) programme, but agriculture tends to be forgotten
gradually as power changes from one leader to another, and oil sector was being strengthened and explored at full capacity.
Then the problem began when oil became the solution to the rich-syndrome in Nigeria; to our leaders oil became money-making ventures thereby
investing in building large capacity refineries outside the country in
order to increase their bid for money accumulation.
Politics becomes the talk of the town, even a day-old baby would wish to become a councilor (lowest political post), but who suffer most? There was this joke I read sometimes ago. It goes thus:
A little boy goes to his dad and asks, "What is politics?"Dad
says, "Well son, let me try to explain it this way: I'm the breadwinner of
the family, so let's call me capitalism. Your Mom, she's the administrator of the
money, so we'll call her the Government. We're here to take care of your needs, so we'll call you the people. The nanny, we'll consider her the Working Class. And your baby brother, we'll call him the Future. Now, think about that and see if that makes sense". So the little boy goes off to bed thinking about what dad
had said. Later that night, he heard his baby brother crying, so he gets up to check on him. He finds that the baby has severely soiled his diaper. So the little
boy goes to his parents' room and finds his mother sound asleep. Not wanting to wake her, he goes to the nanny's room. Finding the door locked, he peeks in the keyhole and sees his father in bed with the nanny. He gives up and goes back to bed. The next morning, the little boy says to his father, "Dad, I think I Understand the concept of politics now." The father
says, "Good son, tell me in your own words what you think politics is all about." The little boy replies, "Well, while Capitalism is screwing the Working Class, the Government is sound asleep, the People are being ignored and the Future is in deep shit." This is the true reflection of Nigeria present condition in the 21st century. After diversifying from agriculture, were there pains? Yes! Yes!! We suffered a lot from our parents, to the
present generation, even the future is compromised.
The giant of Africa has become a laughing stock to other nations, unemployment has become major motto for graduates, criminal activities
becoming alarming due to frustrated economy, kidnapping has turned to a legal occupation as a means of survival, cyber crime is no longer a secret job,
different sects emerging; terrorizing the peace of the nation, even the
economy is drastically collapsing. What is the way forward? The way forward is to first ban importation of all food crops and encourage local production which will create employments for the youths,unemployed, and also, enhance
entrepreneurship both small and medium scale enterprises.
Besides, Government should secure more land for agricultural purposes and discourage the urbanization of rural areas and forest reserves. The new policy goals
of sustainable agricultural development, which seek food and nutritional
security, improved livelihoods for the people, safe ecosystems, and
sustainable economies of agriculture should be implemented in agricultural
sector by the government which would serve as rebranded incentive to
agricultural sector.
Finally, the future of Nigeria lies in her first love she has neglected, many had come and deceived her because of her unstable mind. Now, she has
realized her mistakes, her mind is made up, and her first love is willing
to accept her back the way she is….Nigerians LET GO BACK TO
AGRICULTURE: OUR
FIRST LOVE.


WRITTEN BY: OLAREWAJU BABATUNDE EMMANUEL February 16,2012

cc: lalasticlala Sholay2011 funpeter idowuogbo

cc: ishilove

I'm waiting for scholars in the house!!!!

Nice write up bro. Guess you have it in you.


Am recommending you for the post of special advise on agriculture and rural development to the people's general.


One day nigeria shall go back to our first love.

Funpeter:
Nice write up bro. Guess you have it in you.


Am recommending you for the post of special advise on agriculture and rural development to the people's general.


One day nigeria shall go back to our first love.

Lool.. Thanks bro.. I hope so

Nice write up bros.... This is an inspiration for our government and our youth.. instead of cyber crime and Agbero's our youth have engage themselves.. send them all to farm...


Permission to re broadcast this Article bro?

Lovely writeup DSA!

1stUnique:
Nice write up bros.... This is an inspiration for our government and our youth.. instead of cuber crime and Agbero's our youth have engage themselves.. send them all to farm...


Permission to re broadcast this Article bro?

Permission GRANTED!!!!