Nigeria: Reducing extreme poverty and pushing rural prosperity through agriculture

Published 04 Nov,2020 via The Nation - Nigeria has an ambitious target of reducing extreme poverty as envisaged in the Economic Growth and Poverty Reduction Strategy. To achieve this, stakeholders say the solution lies in promoting rural agriculture. They suggested multifaceted approaches, including policy changes to promote job growth, infrastructure improvement, technological innovation, energy security and improving quality of life in rural communities, DANIEL ESSIET reports.

The founder of Hastom Nigeria, an agricultural firm, Debo Thomas, is one promising young farmer in Ogbomosho, Oyo State. Unlike young Nigerians who abandon farming and rural communities, choosing to migrate to urban centres in search of white-collar jobs, Thomas chose to remain and make a difference. Today, he is a successful crop and cattle farmer.

He noticed that people interested in agriculture were mostly from the city and their major problem was farmland, while in Ogbomosho, they have abundant land. He started helping people to purchase farmlands.