Stakeholders galvanize support for agribusiness reforms

·        *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