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Dumebi Kachikwu at the C-LAP event.

A blueprint to reform and reposition Nigeria’s agriculture has been unveiled.

Put together by experts and policy makers in agriculture, the blueprint is tagged: “Comprehensive Local Agriculture Plan”, (C-LAP), sponsored by the Association of Local Government of Nigeria, ALGON and some other partners within and outside Nigeria and it is believed to be a blueprint for Agricultural revolution in Nigeria

At its unveiling at the congress hall of Transcorp Hilton, Abuja on October 26 and 27, 2017, Mr. Dumebi Kachikwu, the brain behind C-LAP, said that the plan is to take agriculture to the grassroots through a bottom up approach of designing agriculture, geared towards benefitting a whole lot of people at the 774 local Government Areas in Nigeria.

Speaking in an interview, Mr. Kachikwu said: “What we have now in Nigeria is that agriculture is designed from the Federal Government, it goes down to the Local Government, but there is always a disconnect. So what the Local Governments are doing now is to plan agriculture from the grassroots level, that way, they can create employment, create new opportunities, empower farmers and increase the income of the farmer.

“So we are going to each local government area, we do data gathering, profile the Local Government area, the crop they can grow there, what agro-allied services that can be supported there, what crop do they have comparative advantage in.

“Based on that, we create a business plan for all the local Government Areas, anybody who wants to start something as a farmer will have a plan to work with and that farmer would be sustained with strategic Farmers Market in each Local Government Area where farmers can take their produce to market.”

The charismatic young business tycoon, explained that the plan includes the establishment of an Integrated Farm Models where whatever is being produce in each local government area would be bought over as long as they are in line with the business plan.

“We will also create retail chain model across the country that is in form of supermarket with franchise model. So whatever we get from the farms, we sell to these markets across the country and we will design a mega food pack factories for food processing, whatever we get from each farm we also sent to this people to process.

“So that way, we stop wasting farm produce, we can process them and turn them into secondary products, like corn turned it to pasta, rice into baby food, onions into onions soup, that is the ideal of processing and you get more value,” Dumebi further explained.

Also Hon. Engr. Emeka Nwaobi, a member of the Delta State House of Assembly and a renowned grassroots politician, who was present at the event, described the conference as an eye opener to the investment opportunities in agriculture, while lamenting that Nigeria has for years shown nonchalant altitude by not investing in agriculture.

Nwaobi said: “From the knowledge we have gathered today, it appears to me that for years now Nigeria has been making a lot of mistakes by not investing much of the oil money into agriculture which would have actually supported the economy of the nation.

“And I believe that if we had done that, probably by now, agriculture would have overtaken oil and there would have been less attention in the oil sector. Because of our nonchalant attitude towards agriculture in this country, a lot of things have eluded us and I would want to say that the conference of today has exposed us to a lot of opportunities, and it is not late if we begin now to invest our resources in agriculture for greater yields and improved economy.

“Am sure and convinced that it is one sure way that we can improve our resource and improve our economy which will go a long way in assisting the oil that Nigeria solely depends on, we should not depend solely on oil anymore because there is so much money in Agriculture and we are yet to tap the potentials we have as a Nation, that is so blessed with very fertile soil,” Hon. Nwaobi noted

He assured that he would do everything within his reach with a view to ensuring that his constituency in Delta State key into the C-LAP project, adding that he would go about it by opening discussions with the traditional rulers and other major stakeholders in his constituency whereby they would be educated to participate and benefit from the Comprehensive Local Agricultural Plan.

Also at the Seminar was the Chairman, Delta State House of Assembly Service Commission, Chief Barr. Ada KachiKwu who is a renowned Agriculturist based in Onicha-Ugbo in Aniocha North Local Government area of Delta State. In attendance also were other major stakeholders in agriculture across the 774 local government areas of Nigeria with representation from international partners, Federal Ministry of Agriculture as well as the 36 states of the Federation.

With the Chairman of C-LAP, Mr. Dumebi Kachikwu were his management team that included the Chief operating Officer of the group, Dr. Balraj Sikka.

The President of the Association of Local Government of Nigeria (ALGON), Hon. Gambo Tanko Kagara, the former President of the Association, Hon. Ibrahim Ahmed Karaye were also at the seminar.

The seminar was made up of five sessions with distinguished panelists at each session receiving presentations on various agricultural based topics that included, Strategies for Agricultural Development to Improve Rural Livelihoods, chaired by Dr. Umesh Singh with Prof. G. B. Ayoola as the key Speaker; Moving Forward from Traditional to Hi-tech Agriculture through C-LAP coordinated by Dr. Abdelbagi Ismail with Prof. Itodo as key Speaker and the session on New Market opportunities moderated by Prof. M. A. Hussaini with Dr. Ayodeli Balogun as key presenter.

Presentations were also on Taking Agriculture to Agribusiness and the session was anchored by Prof. Oto Okwu with Mr. Godson Ohuruogu as the key Speaker and finally expositions on Business Opportunities session chaired by Dr. P.L Gautam where the Key speaker was Dr. M. Sagagi.

The C-LAP Management Team also at the seminar looked at the way forward for the Project, through Dr. Abdelbagi Ismail, who gave a presentation on how to enhance and sustain food production in sub-Saharan African: Role of Stress Tolerant Rice Varieties, while another expert, Dr. A. K. Agnihotri, exposed the participates to the GIS Technology-Its role and Application in Agriculture, and the Need for Regional Cooperation in Seed Sector in South and South East Asia was given by a renowned international Agricultural expert, Dr. Umesh Singh.

Good will messages came from the Federal Ministry of Agriculture, Nigerian Incentive-Based Risk Sharing System for Agricultural Lending (NIRSAL), Cultivating New Frontiers in Agriculture (CNFA), and other International Partners.
The purpose of the seminar which was to sensitize and present objectives, approach and work plan for C-LAP to all relevant partners, stakeholders and the general public was greatly achieved with participants keying into the program with massive donation of huge portions of lands in different locations across the country for the immediate implementation of the plan in their various areas.
• Source: cshowcaseonlinenews.com,