Guardian

ECONOMIC diversification with focus on agribusiness development has been canvassed by a university don, Dr. Jude Anayochukwu Mbanasor of the Micheal Okpara University of Agriculture Umuahia (MOUA) Abia State as way out of the nation’s economic doldrum.

Mbanasor, a professor of agricultural economics/agribusiness, who spoke at the 16th inaugural lecture recently, said this has also limited the scope of industrialization of the country and equally resulted to the failure of the country to benefit from opportunities to add value and create jobs.

In his lecture titled, Pushing Back Poverty In Nigeria: Agribusiness Development, Mbanasor revealed that “in developing countries, processing one tonne of agricultural product results in a gain of $180 while in African countries, such process only generates approximately N40 dollars.”

Clarifying what makes up agribusiness, the professor described it as all organisations whose basic raw materials or final outputs are agricultural; or are for agriculture, spanning the entire agricultural production processing, distribution and consumption spectrum ranging from input supplies to farms themselves, wood producers, furniture manufacturers, food processors, packers, transportation, marketing companies to restaurants.

According to him, the neglect and perceived under-development of the sector is the greatest constraint to poverty reduction.

For the poor to benefit from agribusiness development, he said that policymakers and development partners should target interventions along the entire agribusiness value chain and not just agriculture on a stand-alone basis.

Mbanasor, however, said that this would entail the transformation of raw outputs into products with higher value, which would generate diversified activities through which the poor could benefit.

The inuagural lecturer who also defined poverty as a situation where an individual, state or nation is unable to cater adequately for their basic needs for flood, clothing and shelter and or inability to meet social and economic obligations, skills, necessary for gainful employment and access social and economic infrastructure.

He argued that “The average Nigerian child is born in poverty but ironically does not want to die in poverty.”

Poverty, the professor said, is a preventable disease afflicting Nigeria and other developing countries while the diagnosis of the status, incidence and profile are initial steps to cure it.

“And to effectively push back poverty, Nigeria needs new learning and innovation systems, which are embodied in agribusiness development especially as it gives room for regional cooperation, new types of partnerships between agribusiness investors and researchers,” Mbanasor canvassed.