The need for small holder rural farmers to be put into consideration in bringing the agriculture sector to contribute to national income has been identified.

To empower the rural farmers in western Nigeria to enable them contribute more to food supply and take it a notch higher to agribusiness, a summit was held in Ondo State on Tuesday.

At the opening ceremony of the 9th Western Nigeria Agriculture Summit held in Akure, the capital of Ondo State, Governor Olusegun Mimiko, said that the need for Nigeria to diversify its economy had become very necessary, with the drop in the price of crude oil.

Nigeria depends largely on crude oil sales for revenue generation, but prior to the discovery of crude, agriculture was the nation’s major source of revenue.

The theme of the summit is “Promoting Agribusiness market entrepreneurship and financing for the development of Smallholder rural/urban farmers in Western Nigeria”.

Gathered at the multipurpose auditorium of Ondo State Cultural Centre for the summit were partner agencies both local and international as well as government officials in south-west Nigeria and the national level.

Governor Mimiko was categorical in his speech that in the present economic situation, whereby there is global recession in the oil industry, Nigeria needed to pay more attention to agribusiness and smallholder and rural farming.

He stressed that smallholder farmers could also do profitable business in Nigeria.

Earlier, the Chairman of Ondo State Wealth Creation Agency, Bolanle Olafunmiloye, informed the gathering that the agency intended to create a sound economic environment by transforming the state’s economy into a leading agricultural hub that could compete both locally and globally.

Fish, cassava farmers and others were present at the three-day summit organised by the Ondo State government in collaboration with the African Farmers Projects. The summit will end on August 13.