Group picture of stakeholders during the 2018 National Organic Agriculture Business Summit held in Lagos |
The various
governments in Nigeria have been urged to pursue the commitment to create the
700,000 jobs in the agricultural sector using the organic sub-sector and to take
advantage of several market opportunities worth 90 billion dollars for organic
produce and products outside Nigeria.
These are some of the issues raised via a
communiqué issued at the end of the 2018 National Organic Agriculture Business
Summit held in Lagos.
The
participants also urged the Federal, States and Local Governments of Nigeria to
fulfill their commitments to the concerned Sustainable Development Goals,
specifically Goal 2(Zero Hunger), Goal 3 (Good Health and Well-being), Goal 5
(Gender Equality) and Goal 12 (Responsible Consumption and Production).
They also
asked that the Agricultural Research Council of Nigeria, agricultural research
institutes and universities should prioritize organic agriculture in their
research activities.
The other
issues raised were
·
That
the National Universities Commission (NUC) and National Board for Technical
Education (NBTE) should drive the mainstreaming of organic agriculture into
existing curricula in tertiary educational institutions in Nigeria.
·
That
yearly budgetary allocations of Ministries of Agriculture and Rural
Development, Health, Industry, Trade & Investment and Environment, as well
as other Nigerian financial institutions and parastatals should address
appropriate organic agriculture issues in Nigeria.
·
That
the relevant national, governmental, non-governmental and private organizations
support the National Organic Agriculture Business Summit UNESCO, IFAD and other
programmes under embassies in Nigeria should support organic agriculture
activities
·
That
Nigeria should form her own Participatory Guarantee System (PGS) committees for
quality assurance of organic produce and products.
·
That
there is the need for adoption of organic living, which comprises of
consumption of organic food and products, concern for the environment, for
overall wellbeing.
·
The
need for increased organic market share in the global market for Nigerian
produce, products and services; BioFach is an example (holds mid February every
year at Nuremberg, Germany) and other related exhibitions need to be explored
No comments:
Post a Comment