A Civil Society Organisation (CSO) has urged government at all levels to create conducive environment for youths to massively return to farming in order to boost food production in the country.
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The Executive Director of Leadership Entrepreneurship and Advocacy Network (LEAD Network), Mr Chukwuma Okenwa, made the call while speaking with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Enugu on Monday.
Okenwa said that the call had become imperative following the lockdown meant to check spread of the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic for some weeks now in the country.
According to him, there has been increase in the consumption of food and other edibles while millions of Nigerians stayed at home.
“The supply chain of food across states is greatly impeded as most farmers don’t go to their farms again due to the lockdown, closure of the country’s borders and lack of effective strategy to ensure maximum outreach to farmers at the grassroots on the need to continue their farming businesses.
“Youths interventions by leveraging of their massive physical strength endowed on them can be deployed to ensure that we are not faced with a food pandemic, which could be more disastrous than COVID-19 pandemic,’’ he said.
Okenwa called on youth corps members, who still received their monthly allowances from the Federal Government to leverage on the lands in their villages to boost food production in the country.