Nigerians should embrace agriculture for economy growth, Brazil’s Figueiredo says

Amb. Maria Figueiredo, the Consul-General of Brazil in Lagos Tuesday urged Nigeria to emulate Brazil in the development of her agriculture, to help it completely get out of the recession.

Figueredo, according to NAN, gave the advice in Lagos at a Breakfast Meeting to announce the forthcoming Nigerian Association of Chambers of Commerce and Industry (NACCIMA)’s “Economic Recovery Agri-Agro Summit.”

The consul-general said that although Brazil was currently in a recession, she has continued to give priority to the development of her agriculture sector, to meet national and international needs.

“I have decided to support the organisation of this Summit because of how the agriculture sector has continued to be my country’s main area of focus.

“We believe that as an agricultural power today, we should support other countries, including Nigeria, to give priority to the development of their agriculture sector.

“I really want to support and share our agriculture development experiences with Nigerian farmers, because I know agriculture has been keeping our country, even in a recession,’’ she said.

The Chairman of MTN Nigeria, Pascal Dozie, said that Nigeria’s long dependence on oil had truncated the nation’s past commitment to agriculture.

Dozie said that Nigerians should not continue to delude themselves by continuously depending on proceeds from oil, especially now that many countries were discovering oil in their communities.

“Let me say that we cannot continue to delude ourselves that our economy would continue to depend on oil.

“We must begin to glamorise agriculture, so that anybody who is working in the agriculture sector, would work with pride.

“We must, therefore, first begin to define agriculture in this country, because it currently does not have a positive status,’’ he
said.

Dozie, who commended the Consul-General of Brazil for supporting the initiative to refocus Nigeria’s attention on agriculture, said that Nigeria would not succeed as an industrialised country without agriculture.

Brazil’s most significant agricultural products are coffee, soybeans, wheat, rice, corn, sugarcane, cocoa, citrus and beef.

They cover about 31 percent of the nation’s total land area, with a crop value of 65 billion dollars.