Expert Makes Case For Unbundling Of Agric Ministries
MANAGING Director of the Anambra State Fisheries and Aquaculture Business Development Agency (FABDA), Emeka Illoghalu, has stressed the need for agriculture ministries in the federal and the various states level to be unbundled to allow innovations and inventions to thrive and expand entrepreneurship.
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Illogbhalu, argued that if that was not done, a lot of talents and opportunities will be wasted in the country, that the agric ministries in the country are not structured to encourage entrepreneurship and Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs).
“Agriculture Ministries should be unbundled to allow innovations and inventions to thrive and expand entrepreneurship.
“If not, we are wasting too much talent and opportunities in this country and the Agriculture Ministries in the country are not structured to encourage entrepreneurship and SMEs.
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Illoghalu noted that the ministries dabble into executing projects that they have zero competence to even evaluate not to talk of driving or executing and as a result, funds keep going down the drain without sustainable results.
“The ministries dabble into executing projects that they have zero competence to even evaluate not to talk of driving or executing. As a result, funds keep going down the drain without sustainable results.
“Total overhaul, unbundling and reliance on specific agriculture and not general agriculture on a case by case basis is the way to go,” he said.
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Speaking further he said Anambra State has taken the lead in unbundling the activities of commodities within its Ministry of Agriculture and that a clear example is the establishment of Fisheries and Aquaculture Business Development Agency (FABDA).
“We have other commodities other than fishery. Nothing stops any government, including ours, from taking off from cassava and expanding its value chain. If you look at cassava, for example, you will see that there are several products you can get from the product.
“You can get starch, fufu both wet and dry; flour for baking, tapioca, garri and several others from just roots. Then, you can get several others from the leaves and stems. So, there is a huge economic potential that is locked in cassava as a commodity.
He stated that there could be an agency that is dedicated to expanding the cassava value chain and structuring it in such a way that economic activities will be released and a lot of wealth creating activities will be unleashed and still be able to expand the economy just from cassava.
“The economic potential and value of cassava could even be more than fish. Unbundling leads to creating more wealth-creating avenues and consequently jobs. This is because as you are creating wealth and making companies and ventures, it is human beings that will naturally work in those places and these are jobs”.
Illoghalu further stated that agriculture is a big business in Nigeria, that the nation is blessed with fertile land, that there are several crops which even do not take long to mature.
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“We have cassava, potato, rice and maize. You can group them in different ways. You have roots, grains, vegetables and others. Some of them do not take too long to mature.
“Vegetables will take weeks and they are ready. Potatoes will take a few weeks and they are ready. Yam takes at most half a year; maize takes three months and so on and so forth.
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“The ministries of agriculture are not structured to produce entrepreneurs. Everybody knows that, and it is not in contest, all this while, the government and others have been saying that agriculture should become business.
“Clearly, something is still missing and as much as we say agriculture should be business, the next step is matching them with the existing agricultural commodities so that we will be able to have value and have outcomes which will increase the economy of our state and our country. “We need to take the next step of taking another commodity. I mentioned cassava. It could be rice; it could be maize; it could be soya beans, it could be any other commodity,” he added.
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