Nigeria Can Plant Trees Triennially With Good Irrigation – Expert

Trees

The national president, Co-operative Federation of Nigeria, Mr Jibrin Bala, has said that Nigeria can plant crops three times annually with the utilization of good irrigation facilities to ensure food security.


He noted that some food exporting countries in the world make maximum use of dams and other irrigation facilities at their disposal.

“We have land, which is a good thing because you cannot talk about agriculture without land. We also have internal rivers which would enhance planting three times a year.

“Countries like Saudi Arabia and Libya does not have enough river like Nigeria, but they cultivate three times in a year.”

He lamented that Nigeria is  not utilising the potential it has in some of the cash crops in the country and its massive arable land.

“Nigeria is number one in anything agriculture; we produce 34 million tonnes of cassava and are not utilizing more than 5 million tonnes, all the others go back to the land. Since our rivers can irrigate 60 per cent of our land, we don’t need to to import rice or wheat from America or Asia because they don’t have better land than we do,” Bala said.

He called on the government to make the agriculture sector attractive through mechanization which will in turn make the sector attractive to youths.

“If the government can make agriculture attractive, more young people will be drawn to the sector and it will in turn create jobs and improve productivity,” he said.

While commending the past government for its drive in the agriculture sector, Bala also called on the present administration to prioritise agriculture so that agriculture will in turn contribute to the country’s gross domestic product .