Nigerians Urged To Embrace Farming

By Murtala Agboola

Nigerians have been called upon to embrace commercial farming as a veritable source of income and also a legacy to bequeath to generations yet unborn.

The call was made by Dr. Bamidele Olofin of Odua Farmers Academy, Aisu Ede on the 2nd Annual General Meeting (AGM) of NACOMYO Co-operative Investment and Credit Union (CICU) held at the NACOMYO School, Igbona, Osogbo recently.

Olofin stressed the fact that for anybody to make a meaningful gain in agriculture, he needs to have accounting knowledge, the marketing strategies as well as Information Communication Technology (ICT) to be able to determine the profitability prospect of the business.

Many farmers, according to Olofin, do not embark on soil test to know the suitability of each soil for a particular crop thereby depriving them of the benefit of bountiful harvest they desire.

He stressed that most of these farmers simply conclude that farming is not profitable which is wrong.

According to the Quantity Surveyor turned agriculturist, all aspects of agriculture, animal husbandry, vegetable farming, and cash crop farming are all lucrative.

The widely travelled agriculturist who trained at the Ahmadu Bello University Zaria, Kaduna State has conducted agric seminars for many groups such as NASFAT, Osun, gun State Muslim Community and others.

Also at the forum, the Manager of Jaiz Bank, Mr Habila Soliu encouraged Muslims in the state to take advantage of the non-interest policy of his bank on loans.

Among the benefits, according to Soliu, are zero balance and no cost on transfer (COT).

He concluded by saying that his bank is always interested in assisting their customers to own landed properties, houses, cars, and other valuables without charging interest.

Earlier in his welcome address, the President of the union, Alhaji Abdullateef Olayanju had stated the remarkable achievements undertaken within the last twelve months of the society.

These included but not limited to computerization of records and programmes, carrying out investments projects that yielded profits and therefore dividend to members and the purchase of landed properties.

Olayanju stressed the fact that members were exposed to the benefits inherent in agriculture so that they could take advantage of it.

In his lecture on Inter-human relationship-Islamic perspective, Mr Tirimisiyu Adepoju, enjoined muslims to maintain cordial relationship with their neighbours being Muslims or not.

Adepoju identified five types of relationship which are with family members, peer groups or friends and those with neighbours / society or co-workers. The rest are relationships with fellow muslims and non-muslims.