An agro-business firm AgroNigeria says it has secured the services of Nollywood and the creative industry actors to produce movies and a television series to encourage the youth to take to farming.
The Chief Executive Officer, Mr Richard-Mark Mbaram made the disclosure at a news conference on Wednesday in Lagos.
Mbaram said there was need to demonstrate to the youth the attractiveness, benefits and wealth in the agriculture sector through movies and television series.
He added that the television series would showcase Nigeria’s agric potential as capable of driving Africa’s economic development if properly harnessed.
“We want to use the screen to demystify the notion that agriculture is a complex sector; hence collaborating with some renowned figures in the Nollywood industry to showcase the agric sector.
“The first phase in Nigeria will gulp N350 million while the N350 million will be spent at the continental level.
“The funds will be gotten from our supporting partners, which include the Africa Development Bank (AfDB); OXFAM and International Centre for Tropical Agriculture (CIAT),” he said.
Mbaram cited the Cock Crow at Dawn television series of the 1970s aired on Nigerian Television Authority (NTA) as one of the firm’s case study to pursue the Agro Nolly series.
He said the rural areas where core farming activities were domiciled would be the major focal points for the series as well as highlighting implications of government’s actions and inactions in the sector.
“It is time the political class in Nigeria begins to look at the implications of their actions and inactions. Nigeria must get its acts together to systematically take on the opportunities in the sector.
“We need to show and talk about issues as they occur like transportation and marketing. In other climes, transportation of farm produce is easy but in Nigeria, it is hard work because of the state of our roads,” he said.
AgroNigeria is the organiser and driver of Feed Nigeria Summit, an annual gathering of stakeholders in the agribusiness space globally. (NAN)
