Senator Bwacha, state this in Ilorin, when he led members of the committee on a courtesy visit to the Kwara State Governor, Alhaji Abdulfatah Ahmed at the Government House.

The Chairman, who stressed the need for government at all levels to take the issue of agriculture seriously as a viable alternative to oil, praised the state government for its positive role in promoting commercial agriculture and urged other state governors to emulate the Kwara model.

The State, Bwacha said, is blessed with three key institutes which are germane to the development of agriculture and enjoined Governor Ahmed not to relent in his efforts to take agriculture to the next level.

Members of the Committee, he noted, were in the State as one of their oversight functions, to ensure that funds allocated to the Ministry of Agriculture and its agencies were judiciously used for the purpose intended.

Receiving members of the committee in his office, Governor Abdulfatah Ahmed disclosed that his administration had already sourced for N1.5billion to be put into irrigation in the State to combat the serious water problem being encountered by rural farmers.

He specifically called for intervention from the Federal Ministry of Water Resources to combat the problem of irrigation, which he noted, had prevented an all-year-round farming in majority of the farming communities and urged members to work for the success of the new tariff regime at the National Assembly level.

The governor equally advised the Federal Government to support agriculture with an incentive tariff regime to take it to the desired level and encourage commercial farming in the country.

Alhaji Ahmed, who expressed optimism that "backward integration" could be achieved in agriculture only when it is supported with a strong incentive on tariff, said agriculture is the only true way that can drive the economy on a sustainable basis.

18/11/2011