Due to its records in agricultural production, the North can still serve as the food basket of the nations as well as West African sub region, the President of African Business Roundtable, Alhaji Bamanga Tukur has said.

Making the pronouncement yesterday at a media briefing in Kaduna, Tukur said despite criticisms from some quaters, the recently concluded Northern Agricultural Summit held last week in Kaduna can achieve its objectives and address the problem of agriculture in the region and above all make history

He pointed out that, the North was blessed with vast uncultivated land, extensive under utilised water resource and abandoned dams, which can be put to practical use to achieve the objectives of the summit in returning the glorious days of agric the region.

In his words, "the summit will address the problem of agriculture in the North because it is nothing new. We have seen it before. There is vast uncultivated land, unutilised good water resources and abandoned dams in the North that can be put to effective use to make the North the food base of Nigeria and West Africa.

The extension farms have been abolished.

"How do you want farmers to have the knowledge and capacity to implement what he has learned because as you know, capacity building is quite important, even the knowledge of how to use fertiliser, herbicide and other inputs correctly, how to understand the planting season, the right things to plant, there is big disconnect between those talking and those who want to implement what they are saying. But to achieve that, we have to take everybody accountable and to continue asking questions where there is need for clarification.