Nigeria gifted with human, natural resources for self-sufficiency in food production –Director

The Director, Federal Science Equipment Centre, Ijanikin, Lagos, Dr. Yekini Ismail, says Nigeria is blessed with human and mineral resources enough to be self-sufficient in food production.

According to him, the rising food costs willbe mostly reduced if Nigerians can heed the call by President Muhammadu Buhari to engage in farming, as the necessary materials are readily available.

Ismail made the assertion in an interview on the sidelines of a scientific-based institution's Entrepreneurial Workshop for its staff.

The ongoing Entrepreneurial Workshop is a partnership program between the Federal Science Equipment Center and the School of Entrepreneurial Studies at the Lagos State University of Education, Otto/Ijanikin.

The Entrepreneurial Workshop involves training in bread making, confectionaries, home-made soap and detergents, and organic-based lotions using farm produce such as fruits and herb trees, among others.

Ismail also described as faultless the comment by President Buhari on Nigeria's self-sufficiency in food production.

NAN reports that President Buhari said in a radio interview with Tambarin Hausa TV in Kano that Nigerians had no reason to complain of hunger as there were abundant farmlands.

He also noted that God had blessed Nigeria with rain.

Ismail drew inferences from entrepreneurial studies and their impacts on sustainable food production.

"The Federal Science Equipment Centre is a product of tripartite partnerships between Nigeria and the United Nations Educational, Science, and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) and the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP).

"The agreement is to develop our institution into a world-class center in the areas of fabrication, maintenance, and repairs of science equipment using locally sourced materials."

"We also have the mandate of training the users of this equipment."

"Since our inception, we have made giant strides in fabricating locally made equipment that may have been imported."

"However, thinking outside the box, we noticed that we need training for our staff to get involved in entrepreneurial skills and not just teach other people on the subject alone," he said.

Backing the call of the president, Ismail urged Nigerians to pay attention and take practical steps toward actualising food sufficiency for the country.

"We need to be practical with the things that we have studied and not be abstract."

"And for us here, we have fabricated many machines that some of our people are struggling to get outside Nigeria."

"President Buhari is 100 percent right about Nigeria's food self-sufficiency because he has traveled far and beyond to see what other countries are doing in terms of agriculture and foods that we can produce."

"We have countries that are not as big as a state in Nigeria, yet they are not just growing their food, but producing for exportation."

"Nigeria has the land mass, and we can also produce farm machinery."

"For us in this institution, we have been able to fabricate farm equipment such as cutlasses, hoes, harvesters, and other simple agricultural equipment; we have also produced locally-made fertilizers as well," he said.

Ismail said that to adequately address the problem of food shortages, agriculture should be taught as a part of entrepreneurial studies because of its relevance to food production.

"The entrepreneurial studies have opened our eyes so that we will not continue to rely on the government."

"This is because it involves how to make our people independent."

"We have the human capacity, market, and population to consume our agricultural produce if we will pay attention to the sector, but instead our graduates are looking forward to working in offices."

"We have several arms in agriculture, such as wildlife management, animal husbandry, fishing, and producing fertilizer, which is one of the simplest agricultural products."

"We have a mandate to train people on how to achieve these things if they are willing to take the call of the president seriously," he said.