The idea was for the country to boost agricultural production and for Nigeria to reverse its negative balance of payment on food.

The first step, however, will be for the nation to achieve self sufficiency in food by, at least, “growing what we eat,’’ and then, put a stop to the reckless importation of food items. This was supposed to help save scarce foreign exchange which can then be used for other more pressing needs.

Critical to achieving food security was the need to support Nigerian farmers, majority of whom were involved in small scale, subsistence farming, to explore large scale, mechanised and commercial agriculture. This led to the idea of an Anchor Borrowers’ scheme which was driven by the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN)

The Anchor Borrowers’ Programme (ABP) which was launched on November 17, 2015 by President Buhari, was designed to provide farm inputs in cash and kind to Small Holder Farmers (SHFs). The programme was intended to create a linkage between Anchor Companies involved in food processing and SHFs of the required key agricultural commodities through the commodity associations.

The President went ahead to stop the CBN from providing foreign exchange to food importers, so as to encourage local food production, which he said, was a step towards food security.

Buhari recently reiterated his premium on agriculture during a meeting with members of his economic team, where he told Nigerians that dependence on receipts from crude oil sale could no longer sustain the nation’s economy.

“We will continue to encourage our people to go back to the land. Our elite is indoctrinated in the idea that we are rich in oil, leaving the land for the city for oil riches.

“We are back to the land now. We must not lose the opportunity to make life easier for our people. Imagine what would have happened if we didn’t encourage agriculture.

“Now the oil industry is in turmoil. We are being squeezed to produce at 1.5 million barrels a day as against a capacity to produce 2.3 million. At the same time, the technical cost of our production per barrel is high, compared to the Middle East production,’’ he said.