Nigerian Senate President, Dr. Bukola Saraki |
In a spirited heart to reposition the nation’s economic
productivity and diversify from oil mono economy, the Nigerian Senate Chamber
has hosted stakeholders to a public hearing on three strategic different bills
in Agriculture towards effective mandates’ performance that will give the
sector global best practice to checkmating produce rejection, safety from
diseases, soil testing before fertilizer application and right to quality and
affordable food in Nigeria.
One of the greatest challenges confronting agricultural
development in Nigeria is lack of effective and efficient legislative acts
which stakeholders posited must be tackled with updated laws of operation that
would give a global standard practice in the country.
The Senate President, Dr. Bukola Saraki in the public
hearing ceremony said that all efforts would be put in top gear to ensure
proactive regulative acts for the development of agricultural sector stated
repositioning of the nation from mono oil to real economy of production through
backward integration policy of the present administration Mohammed Buhari is
worthy of pursuing with an effective act.
Dr. Saraki encouraged stakeholders to make a meaning
contribution that would enhance the speedy passage of the three proposed bills
for an act saying “for the past few months the 8th senate has
deliberated extensively on the Nigerian Agricultural Quarantine Service bill,
food security bill and Institute of soil science statutory bill. These three
bills are encompassing under agricultural sector as all the subcommittee groups
have since made impacts to strengthen their functionality and efficiency in the
Nigerian agriculture as transition to economic diversification is ongoing. I am
also aware along these bills that there are other bills the committee has been
busy working on. I know two other bills the committee is busy with like credit
guarantee and access to farmers. All these are effort by the 8th
senate to truly reposition our agricultural sector as the time cannot be better
than now with the present President of the Federal Republic Nigeria that is
very passionate in the reposition of the nation’s economy with agriculture”
In his argument for the support of the three bills
supposedly slated for passage into an
acts, the Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development (FMARD) Chief Audu
Ogbeh pointed to the distinguished senators and other stakeholders the need to
rescue millions of Nigerians from food poison through standard packaging of
crops and animals produce for export and local consumption stressed that many
lives are exposed to various types of terminal diseases as long as there is no
act in place to properly regulate and ensure standard for market.
Chief Audu who condemned the use of cellophane nylons for
food packaging said the use of jute bag was more preferable for agricultural
produce of grains and beans adding many lives have been lost to improperly
washed fertilizer bags that were used to package produce to the market places unknowingly for
the customers thereby supporting the passing of the Quarantine bill into an act
so as to be able to checkmate these abnormities just as he advocated for the establishment of
the Institute of soil science and food security bills.
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