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By Kelechi Esogwa-Amadi
A lecturer in the department of Agric and Applied Economics, Rivers State University, Dr Okidim Andrew has called on churches in Port Harcourt and other parts of Nigeria to explore the untapped, rich opportunities in the agriculture sector by establishing farms and agro-based industries to provide jobs for the teeming unemployed youths in Rivers State, Niger Delta and the nation at large.
To achieve this easily and faster, the agric expert advised churches to pull their resources together and channel same into the project, noting that today’s churches have the capacity to do that.
Speaking with TPCN yesterday (Friday) in Port Harcourt, Dr Okidim Andrew, who said he specialises in agricultural finance, said the opportunities in agriculture are immense and should therefore be explored by the church many of whose members are jobless, poor and hungry.
According to him, providing for the socio-physical needs of its members is one of the two major responsibilities of the church, the other one being the spiritual needs.
Dr Okidim Andrew said: “The church has two responsibilities: the spiritual responsibility and the social responsibility. When the white people came, when the western people came –their missionaries- they built hospitals. They built a lot of things, not just the word of God. And so the churches can pool their resources together and actually do business for the betterment of members. When members are employed they serve God better. So they can do that. They have the resources, they have the land, they have the connection, they have everything; they have the expertise.”
The RSU don, who said he is also a business consultant, offered to help the church actualize this agricultural project if his services are needed, as he is also a Christian and goes to church.
“Most of us are in churches. I’m an Assemblies of God member. If they need the expertise, we’re there. So, the churches have everything; they have the money; they have the expertise; they have the resources. The problem is that they have not been able to pool their resources together. If they can pool their resources together, we’ll better this nation,” he explained.
On the issue of lack of facilities for preservation of agricultural products, which adversely affects farmers in Rivers State and other parts of Nigeria and what he thinks is the solution, Dr Okidim Andrew said: “There are perishable items like tomato for instance. Tomato hardly stays beyond four or five days but you can can it. As a preservative measure, you can can tomato. And so we need to have cottage industries. The churches can build cottage industries and then preserve the tomato by way of canning it. There is no agric product that you cannot can, you cannot process and store. And so the issue of preservation could be overcome. Even if its plantain. If you go to IIJ, they have bred a plantain that can lengthen the time of ripe. Instead of may be one month, it can stay for two months before it’s ripe.
“The agric sector is doing very well in terms of these things. If they bring the resources, we can provide them with solutions. We can actually provide solution against perishability.”
On how the government can come in to support farmers, the agric expert said: “The reason why the agric sector is like this is because you don’t play politics with agriculture. To mention government, you’re actually playing politics with agriculture. The owner of Songhai Farm in Port Novo used to say one thing: that anything government touches, it dies. So, government can only provide the enabling environment and allow the private sector to thrive to drive the sector. Government can’t own farms.
“Even when they establish some, they can lease them out; they can concession them for private businessmen to take over. Look at the Buguma Fish Farm – it’s dead. Look at the Songhai Farm; all these ones are dead because they didn’t concession them to private sector to run. The government can only provide the enabling environment and then allow the private sector to be in fore front. That’s the only way government can come in and then provide security, like kidnapping in the forest. If people have security, they can go to the forest and do their business. So, that’s the only responsibility of government – provide security, provide seedlings and probably a few other things.”
