FIIRO tasks stakeholders on value addition

The Director General, Federal Institute of Industrial Research (FIIRO), Prof.(Mrs) Gloria Elemo

Stakeholders in the agricultural sector have been advised to go beyond production of produce and its export, but also do value-addition through processing for better market and for wealth and job creation.

The Director General, Federal Institute of Industrial Research (FIIRO), Prof.(Mrs) Gloria Elemo, made the call during an Afro-agricultural Expo themed: “Focus on Food Security and Sustainability” held recently in Abuja.

She identified the need to introduce technology into agricultural processing as well as local fabrication of needed equipment to achieve this feat that would enhance job creation for the youth, women and jobless adult.

Elemo, who was represented by FIIRO Director of Planning, Technology Transfer and Information Management, Dr. Oyedoyin Bolanle also explained that lots of innovations have been made to reduce post-harvest losses in the area of cereals, fish, grains, fruits among others as a way of promoting value addition.

She said that paucity of funds have denied the institute the capacity to share the innovations among stakeholders especially agropreneurs and rural farmers.

“Today, agric in Nigeria is characterised by low productivity, land access constraints, limited adaptation of research findings and local technologies, poor and low irrigation development, high cost of farm inputs, poor access distribution, poor storage facility, poor processing technology development and general post-harvest losses,” she stated.

She disclosed that plans were ongoing to partner with  the private sector to develop technologies that could convert raw agric produce to finished goods saying over 250 technologies have been developed but only 50 of them are ready for commercialization.