We must move from agric politics to agribusiness – Obaseki Edo

State Governor, Mr. Goodwin Obaseki, has called on government at all levels to ensure that the country moves from agricultural politics to agribusiness to spur growth and development in Nigeria’s agricultural sector.

Obaseki, who was the Special Guest of Honour at the 2018 BusinessDay Agribusiness and Food Summit held in Lagos, said government must make adequate data and information available for investors in the sector, stressing that the role of the government is to facilitate agricultural development.

“As government, we need to move from agriculture politics to agribusiness. Most of the infrastructures to aid agribusiness are lacking and we need to start providing these basic infrastructures,” he said.

“We must begin to think of how we can foster partnership among states, communities, Federal Government and the private sector.”

The governor urged the Federal Government to start looking at ways of designing transparent implementation plans, noting that Edo State has been able to increase its agriculture component of her Gross Domestic Product (GDP) through effective implementation of plans.

The governor stated that Edo State is focusing on crops, a subsector in which she has comparative advantage and that the state is re-planning her land use framework

“We have designed our programmes in line with global standards on environmental impact,” Obaseki said.

He added that the state is working very hard on its ease of doing business, saying that Edo State has stopped open grazing.

Obaseki called on the Federal Government to listen more to the private sector for a clearer understanding of where the risks are and find ways of de-risking them.

“When we achieve all these, in five years’ time, Nigeria will be 90 percent self-sufficient in the production of most of its crops,” he further said.