By Omotayo Edubi
Elder statesman and philanthropist, Emmanuel Iwuanyanwu, has tasked the federal and state governments to tackle the impending hunger and starvation by massively investing in agriculture, infrastructure and education.
Iwuanyanwu, who is the chairman of Ohanaeze Ndigbo Elders Council, gave the advice yesterday, when he was honoured by the Nigeria Association of Economists, Imo State chapter.
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Iwuanyanwu, who was represented by his Special Assistant and National Coordinator, Iwuanyanwu Foundation, Chinedu Nsofor, said: “To tackle the impending problems of hunger and starvation, governments, at all levels, need to invest massively in the agricultural value chain of storage and processing.
“Agricultural equipment, facilities/infrastructure. “Government, instead of giving out agricultural credit facilities to farmers, should purchase the agricultural produce from farmers. This helps eliminate wastage of unsold farm produce and empowers the farmers financially for the next farming season
“When the agricultural produce are bought over, the government stores them up in massive agricultural storage facilities across the country and equally processes them for export and for other finished products.
“This will make Nigeria an exporter of finished food (agricultural) produce and not a consumer of foreign food products. Thus, fetching citizens with foreign exchange helps to boost our economy. This will equally help the private sector industries access agricultural raw materials easily for various manufacturing purposes.”
