Senator Olujimi Abiodun, a member of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) Parliament, has linked rising movement of women and young people within the sub-region to a lack of food.
Speaking outside of the delocalized sitting of the Joint Committee on Agriculture, Environment and Natural Resources/ Infrastructure/ Energy and Mines/ Industry and Private Sector of the Parliament in Guinea Bissau, the senator representing Ekiti South Senatorial District made this statement.
She said: “If there was enough food in the sub-region, the menace of migration would be greatly addressed. West Africa must know that food sufficiency is key to whatever we are doing and forms part of the reasons why we have people migrating. When you don’t have enough to eat, your family does not have enough to eat, then there is a problem, you need to migrate. But if there is food sufficiency in West Africa, we won’t have to be a part of this great migration that we all undertake.”
In order to solve food insecurity, the MP urged ECOWAS member states to encourage women and youth to get more engaged in agriculture. She claimed that by doing so, interest in white collar occupations would be significantly lowered and unemployment would be addressed.
In order to solve food insecurity, the MP urged ECOWAS member states to encourage women and youth to get more engaged in agriculture. She claimed that by doing so, interest in white collar occupations would be significantly lowered and unemployment would be addressed.
Olujimi said, “As a community, there is a need for us to do an evaluation and see how we can find ways by which we can convince our youths and women who are critical to the sustenance of the agriculture sector as well as how we can involve them in getting into agriculture and making it better than what we have right now.”
Earlier in his presentation, Julho Malam Injai, the director general of agriculture for Guinea-Bissau, bemoaned the negative economic effects of agricultural imports and urged diversification to increase crop output.
Additionally, he made suggestions for the sub-region as a whole, such as lessening the need for human labor and enlisting young people more heavily to help the economy.
