So sad, so un-thoughtful of us to have forgotten the importance of farming to our economy. We have occupied our minds these days with glamorous businesses that we believe will raise our social status. It is these activities that created the misconception of people who think farming is for the uneducated and those who have failed in the so called sociable Business circle. Alas! This is a very wrong misconception, as farming is the heart of an economy that pumps rich red blood of commercial activity into the vein and arteries of the world’s business.

The scriptures tell of how God created the world. His first command was “Let there be Light”, thus without light, there can’t be life. And next he separated land from water, placed mountains at various locations. He created plants that beautified the scenery and spout out fruits that will enrich the body. He then created animals before creating Man to govern on earth. God has laid the foundation for farming so that Man can survive on earth, thus God is truly the first ever farmer who passed the knowledge to Adam.

The first ever profession man embarked on was to cultivate the land to farm so as to provide food to eat. Even Cain and Abel offered crops from their farm as sacrifice to God, showing us that they were organized farmers not mindless cave men as science makes us to believe of the pre-historic man. The story of Joseph also tells of his wise interpretation of the pharaohs dream to store the yield of the bounty harvest for period of famine. This decision allowed Egypt to prosper economically during the famine period because they had what other nations wanted.

History has further told us the remarkable role farming played in prosperity of nation’s economy. In ancient Rome, they used farming to build wealth and power and reached the pinnacle of it’s greatness. However, she forgot the source of her power and entrusted the operations of it’s farming to slaves or bondsman. So her soil was neglected and her fields became stricken with sterility. The result was devastating, as remunerative crops were no longer harvested and the nation went into decay.

Today, we are faced with a similar situation that the ancient Rome faced. Our nation has purely forgotten the source of her economic prosperity before the advent of crude Oil. We are paying more attentions to Oil & gas, Manufacturing Industries, Technology and Banking. Are we not seeing the BIG picture here? When people don’t eat, how will they work? When industries don’t get raw materials for production, will they survive? If Industries are closing down, how will Banks profit? When there is no commercial activity, will there be a need for the bye products of crude Oil? Then why are we not understanding that farming is the root of any successful economy and all what we are paying attention to are the branches and leaves. If we don’t take care of the roots, the tree will collapse.
Our nation is depending more and more on importation and if we don’t take farming serious, we may find ourselves importing GARRI! (Most common food). If you think this article is over exaggerating the situation, then wait for some few years when farmers are truly no more and crude oil dries out, then and only then will you understand what we have talked about here. So wait if you will, we are all also waiting.

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