Stakeholders Brainstorm on Micro Reforms for Agribusiness

The Nigeria Agribusiness Group

The need to tighten loose ends in ensuring food security for Nigeria and Africa has been brought to the fore at a recent meet in Lagos.


Agricultural stakeholders under the auspices of The Nigeria Agribusiness Group (NABG) held a one- day progress report assessment of the value chain development efforts of the Seeds Association of Nigeria (SEEDAN) and the Fertilizer Suppliers Association of Nigeria(FEPSAN).This according to them was aimed at tackling bottlenecks in their delivery system.


In his remarks, the National Coordinator, NABG, Mr Emmanuel Ijewere tasked the house to develop workable master plans which would boost the effectiveness of small scale farmers.

“The bulk of the push is directed at small scale farmers because they are most helpless. They need the guarantee that their produce will be bought up and that makes them work extra harder. The economic realities around them such as health issues, traditional requirements and ceremonies make them sell off at giveaway prices. We should pay some close attention to these set of people in ensuring their value chain development”

Also responding, the National Coordinator of Micro Reforms For Agribusiness(MIRA), Dr Tony Bello also said the future of a guaranteed food secured society is dependent on the economic muscle of smallholder farmers

“The issue on ground is how we place a demand on smallholder farmers to meet the food security objective in an impact styled manner? They need to be economically empowered to meet the food security objective”.
“There is also the need to have a marketing institution specifically for rice. We have had proposals from interested agencies which are being looked into. We are also looking at the possibility of bringing the Federal Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development into its supervision without a distortion of their own institutional target”.

Other issues which attracted decisive adoptions included the security of distribution network and the challenges on the sector, the need to have an effective monitoring system for the supply chain and the fine tuning of the finance system of agribusiness and potential investors.