The Minister of Agriculture & Rural Development, Chief Audu Ogbeh, has appealed to the Nigerian Prisons Service(NPS) to aggressively embark on agricultural production to improve feeding of inmates.
Ogbeh made the appeal at a sensitisation workshop for officers of the service organised by the Federal Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development in Abuja yesterday.
The minister, represented by Alhaji Muyiwa Azeez, the Director, Agribusiness, Processing & Marketing in the ministry, said the workshop was aimed at building a world class economy through agriculture.
The minister said that adopting all-inclusive agricultural practices, which should involve both retiring and serving officers, would help in boosting food production and cut costs for the government.
According to him, Section five of the 1999 constitution allows government officers including civil servants to go into agriculture without interference.
He said: “We have 79 million hectares of land but less than 40 per cent of them are being utilised. We want to equip you to be prepared for a better life in and out of service.
“We want you to go into livestock farming, crops farming, fertiliser manufacturing, storage and processing of agricultural produce.
“We will train, help and assist you to access loans to achieve this.’’
The Comptroller-General of the Service, Mr. Ja’afaru Ahmed, commended Ogbeh for the initiative aimed at involving military and para-military officers in agriculture.
Ahmed was represented by Mrs. Dorothy Atajiri, the Deputy Comptroller-General in charge of the Directorate of Health and Social Welfare in the service.
Logging you in...
