Agriculture: Why we partner Cornell – Ahmed

The Kwara State Governor, Alhaji Abdulfatah Ahmed, has again reiterated that his administration’s commitment to maximising the social and economic potentials of agriculture, by not just putting food on the table of the citizens but providing jobs, creating more wealth informed the signing of the state’s Agriculture Master Plan with Cornell University in the United States.

According to Governor Ahmed: “The five-year master plan maps out a phased implementation of a dynamic, highly productive and sustainable agriculture sector in the state with particular emphasis on the need for exponential increase in agricultural output and linkages among all agricultural support and manufacturing sector.”
The governor explained further that the plan highlights the crucial role of commercial agriculture in driving maximum productivity and profit for large, medium and small scale farmers while protecting the State’s natural resources.
The governor, who gave this explanation in Washington DC, on Friday at an investment forum put together by the Kwara State Association of Nigeria, North America, said the plan is aimed at developing human and institutional capacity to sustain improvement in economy and food security through support for sector policy and planning institutions and targeted investments in research, extension, education and training .
He added: “In helping to realise the vision of Kwara State as the quintessential agricultural hub of the West Africa sub region, the plan will catalyse a wide range of innovations.”
Harping further on the plan, the governor said that the objective of government is also to improve infrastructure such as integrated storage, packaging and processing facilities, coupled with enhanced distribution and shipping to the African and global marketplace and create an enabling business environment that will attract investors.
Ahmed said that Nigerians would get to understand the logic in creating wealth from agriculture when viewed it beyond putting food on the table.
He said this means practicing agriculture in commercial quantity for the local usage and exportation for foreign trade, adding: “This, therefore, demands a long term planning of not less than 10 years in order to get the desirable outcome which in the long run will better the lives of the people. This, among other factors was responsible for the synergy between Kwara State government and Cornell University, USA.”  
According to him, more than 80 per cent of Nigeria’s agricultural production was dominated by poor and small-scale producers in the rural areas, noting that the group lacked access to capital to acquire the needed inputs to increase output and income.
Ahmed also described the state as the first in the world to sign an MoU with the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences of Cornell University, New York on its Agricultural Modernisation Master Plan as the university is reputed with  partnering with countries.
The governor commended the efforts of his predecessor, Sen. Abubakar Bukola Saraki, for laying a solid foundation for the agricultural transformation of the state through his uncommon audacity to bring the Zimbabwe farmers.
“The opportunity of continuity in governance in the state had made it possible for me to build on the foundation laid by the former governor, Dr. Bukola Saraki,” he affirms.
Earier, the National President of Kwara Association in the US, Chief Lateef Amolegbe, had commended the governor for uplifting the state and sustaining the culture of continuity, which is lacking in most African countries.