Government has been urged to liaise with relevant stakeholders in the agricultural sector to address the challenges of fertilizer shortage in the country.

Despite government’s intervention in the sector by subsidising fertilizer for farmers through the Planting for Food and Jobs policy, deliberative policies are still needed to effectively deal with the situation. 

Speaking exclusively to Joy News, Regional Director for North and West Africa of International Fertilizer Development Center (IFDC), Dr Omou Camara underscored the need to prioritise the agricultural sector in order to help reduce the teething youth unemployment situation in the country.

“Unemployment is a huge problem especially that of the youth is very concerning and what we can do is to use agriculture as an instrument to reduce unemployment.”

She added that the agricultural sector employs most of the labour force in Africa, “so what we can do is to attract the youth, we need to look at the job market in terms of supply and demand.”

“We need to show the youth the opportunities that exist in the agric sector, the innovative opportunities that exist to use ICT to make agriculture cool enough for the youth to see that it can be profitable.”

However, Dr. Camara noted that her outfit was ready to partner with the government on any feasible agriculture policy that aims to champion agricultural success and provide an avenue for sustainable employment and livelihood.