… Needs N18.36trn to feed 170m in 1 year
By Steve Agbota
An agribusiness strategist and enterprise development expert and Mr. Sotonye Anga, has said that Nigeria could earn over $80 billion from agriculture over the next four years if government puts it acts right.
Anga who is also the Managing Director Universal Quest Nigeria also stated that the country requires N18.360 trillion to feed its over 170 million population in one year by producing its food locally.
In an exclusive telephone interview with Daily Sun Anga, said that Nigeria must stop the importation of food and get back to work, to produce the food her population needs locally.
He added: “If we are able to do all of that, we are going to pack N18 trillion through the hands of our farmers. If you combine satisfying our local needs and export needs of Nigerian commodities, we would be able to inflow close to $80 billion.
“Today, as things are, Nigeria is in recession. This is what we are faced with and this is the reality of the time now. However, even if there is recession in the country, people must eat. The hungry stomach does not understand recession. The hungry stomach must be fed and again, that brings us to huge opportunity available for us to feed our population of 170 million people,” he said.
Anga who is also the National Publicity Secretary of National Cashew Association of Nigeria (NCAN), predicted that Nigeria’s population is actually going towards 200 million, adding that it has got 170 million people to feed under the current recession.
He warned: “If we are not able to feed this population of people, then we are going to face what is more than recession. We are going to face terrible malnutrition, hunger and we are going to be faced with terrible insecurity.”
Speaking on the way forward, he said there is need to look inward to produce the food that people would be able to eat, adding that all of the various commodities and all of the staple crops needed to feed the country can be produce locally.
He explained: “So the opportunity is huge! When you look inward today under the current situation and recession, on the average, you require like N300 to feed one person in Nigeria a day. When you take this model of feeding one person for N300 a day, you are going to feed 170 million people, it means that you would require like N61 billion to feed this kind of population in a day and you require about N1.50 trillion to feed them in one month and N18.360 trillion to feed Nigeria in one year.”
He urged Federal Government to encourage young Nigerians to go into agriculture by giving them adequate support and inputs such as hybrid seeds, fund, land and other farm equipment that would enable them to farm.
He said government also has to create a special policy that would make it mandatory, that anybody that wants to farm should have access to credit irrespective of the collateral, stressing that there is need to create the right incentives, right environment, and the right balance that would encourage people to take risk and go to produce the food so that people will have enough to eat and have enough to export.