· *commence implementation of
new tomato policy soon
Stakeholders
at the recently held Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa (AGRA) and Micro
Reforms for African Agribusiness (MIRA) Nigeria Project Stocktaking meeting have
demanded for the sustainability of the programme so as to enhance support for
quality inputs of seeds and fertilizers in Nigeria.
The
project was aimed at identifying authentic policy reforms needed in the entire
agricultural value chain in support of the ongoing agricultural micro-economic
policy and institutional reforms in Nigeria.
Speaking
at the event, the Vice President of the Nigeria Agribusiness Group (NABG), Mr. Emmanuel
Ijewere said that there was need for best agronomics practices through strong
advocacy especially by the private stakeholders in such a way that would attract
quality policies and legislation back up with right extension services of
technologies to local small farmers who were always at the receiving end.
He
canvassed that the MIRA project slated for rounding up was not allowed to go
into oblivion after, saying it should rather be strengthened to ensure
continuity of the lot it has achieved in ensuring both fertilizer regulatory
and seeds bills at the National Assembly.
An
agricultural expert who carried out a survey sponsored by Nigeria Agribusiness
Group (NABG) on MIRA impact, Dr. Adelaja
Adesina revealed that the 2018
seed bill and the fertilizer regulatory bill was receiving attention at the
National Assembly for final ratification before they were both sent for president’s assent, adding that the signing of these bills would help better in inputs availability to farmers.
He
however confirmed, that a lot has been done in MIRA project, but noted that
more still needed to be done for best agricultural policy and law that would
enhance productivity at all the value chains of agriculture.
The
project aims to provide access to local and international technical experts who
could help African Government policy analysts and policy makers to make better
informed, economically-robust assessments and decisions on which policies and
regulations for reform would be based in order to facilitate increased private
investment in smallholder value chains.
The
Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development, Chief Audu Ogbeh, said that most
of the produce had recorded production increase in 2017 compared to what happened
in 2016.
The
minister, who was represented by a director in the ministry Mr Azeez Muyiwa,
said an increase of 4.4 per cent was recorded on sorghum.
Ogbeh
said 6.4 per cent was also recorded on cowpea, 11.4 per cent on soya bean, 7.7
per cent on cassava, 5.5 on groundnut and tomatoes 13.2 per cent, among others.
“It
is uplifting to say that rice yield has increased continually over the last
three years. All states have recorded increase in rice production over the last
three years of the current administration with Lagos having the increase of
30.5 per cent which makes it the highest. This was achieved through support by
government by providing inputs and credit facilities from intervention fund,’’
he said.
The
minister added that the country was able to save close to 300 million dollars
due to import substitution and through the local processing of rice.
“There
are increases in milling capacity of functional integrated rice processing
mills from what used to be 13 to 21 mills and product from less than 600,000
metric tons production capacity to the current 1.2 million metric tons with
total investment of over 400 billion naira. The challenge of post harvest loss
still looms. To this end, government is working tirelessly on policies, laws
and regulations that will improve production. That is why we are welcoming
support initiative of MIRA being supported by AGRA and currently being
implemented in Nigeria and other Africa countries. We are particularly excited
all the review of this programme which will assist in building the future
initiative and implementation of this programme will be implemented, ‘’ the
minister said.
Mr
Kabiru Ibrahim, President, All Farmers Association of Nigeria (AFAN),
encouraged farmers to add value to their farm produce through processing to get
more money instead of selling the raw produce emphasizing that despite the
challenge of flood which affected some states, bumper harvest was still expected
from members.
“Farmers
are going to be more prosperous than before and we want to do this sustainably.
We are interfacing with the seed council to make sure that farmers get good
seed and we are embracing biotechnology to see that we add value to our produce
so that productivity will be higher,” he said.
The Director General, National Agricultural Seed
Council (NASC), Dr Philip Ojo, said that the council was partnering AGRA to
ensure that farmers got quality and improved seeds timely to boost production
No comments:
Post a Comment