AGRA ready to enhance Nigeria agricultural policy with MIRA

In its effort to ensure African countries’ agricultural policies to be friendly to private business investment, the Growing Africa’s Agriculture (AGRA) has initiated Micro Reforms (Policy, Regulation and Law) for African Agri-businesses (MIRA) towards achieving this objective in about five nationals including Nigeria, Tanzania, Ethiopia, Burkina, Faso and Ghana.

 

 Head of Policy Advocacy AGRA Mr. Boaz Black Keizire  said MIRA is one of the key flagship program of Agra which its overall vision is to achieve the year  2020 access to market and finance through spending more time on building partnership with the public and private sector.

MIRA was to find solution that will help African countries to increase private investments in small and medium sized agribusinesses operating in smallholder agricultural value chains.

In its meeting held in Abuja, Nigeria last month, the agricultural stakeholders from both the public and private brainstorm on the ways to better enhanced the present agricultural policy towards attracting more private sector investment of private business in Nigeria.

 

The meeting which syndicates into groups that looked to areas of challenges that need to be enhanced which includes fertilizer/agrochemicals, seed, supply chain and logistic, food processing/value addition, and Agricultural Finance was able to exhaustively come up with proffered solutions.

 However the representative of the Permanent Secretary, Engineer Jato  said that  the lunch of “Mira will create more jobs for out youths and make farmers richer and this will entails  government working more on suitable policies that will be environmental friendly for private sector investment” 

Dr Tony Bello, a special adviser to former Minister of Agriculture, Dr. Adesina hailed the involvement of MIRA being initiated by AGRA saying it is a five years initiative meant to provide African government with access to high quality local and international technical assistance for identifying, prioritizing and reforming scientific agricultural regulations that always deter  private investment in small and medium scale business.

  

He attributed  policies summersault  and unregulated environment as challenges being faced by the Agribusiness in Nigeria saying that “ the security of raw material, lack of government coordination and inconsistency of regulation, tax policy, infrastructure, human capital, land and finance are serious hindrances  to the sector”   While Dr. Tony pointed that  enabling reform on innovative financing for agriculture, full scale implementation of seed and fertilizer policy regulation and law, dry season farming and irrigation farming at scale will change the face of agricultural practice in Nigeria.

Nigeria has been selected as one of the countries for MIRA project support. The MIRA is a demand driven which required that Nigeria must come up with its challenges that stakeholders identified as hindrance to private sector investment in agric business.

Dr Tony Bello said Agra is implementing the Mira project, which is a five years initiative to provide African government with access to high quality local and international technical assistance for identifying, prioritizing and reforming scientific agricultural regulations and currently deter or limit private investment in small and medium scale business.

 He further said  policies and regulatory environment constrain are the problems faced by the Agribusiness in Nigeria such as, the security of raw material, lack of government coordination and inconsistency of regulation, Tax policy, infrastructure, human capital, land and finance. Ha added that enabling reform on innovative financing for agriculture, full scale implementation of seed and fertilizer policy regulation and law, dry season farming and irrigation farming at scale.

Alhaji Tafida a stakeholder present at the meeting noted that Mira is a gap filling procedure and a way to improve African agriculture, which will also help tap round livestock, stressing that 75% of annual produce is a byproduct will help in feeding the livestock, instead of allowing them graze across the country which is current giving security issues in the country.