CORAF, NASC others ponder on low quality inputs for farmers

 The West and Central Africa Council for Agriculture Research and Development (CORAF), National Agricultural Seeds Council (NASC) and relevant stakeholders in the agricultural sector have expressed deep concern on how to step up the quality of inputs being given to farmers at accessesable and affordable prices saying this was the only way to avert imminent food shortage in view of the geometric population growth in the West African region.      

Speaking at the opening of a two day National workshop for Analyzing Agri- input supply chains in West Africa and Sahel Sub-region in Abuja, CORAF Consultant, Professor Bamidele Omitoyin said that the alarming population growth without commensurable food production should be a thing of great concern in view of low quality inputs that were given to farmers, saying the region may be food deficient if the process was not checked with speedy remedy to reverse the trend.

Prof. Omitoyin said that “The workshop is to look at the issue of agricultural input supply in West Africa and in the Sahel. Currently, we have low productivity in the agricultural sector and the major problem that is causing this low productivity is low use of agricultural inputs; agricultural input in terms of seed, in terms of livestock genetic material, in term of fertilizer, in terms of fingerlings, in terms of fish feed and other inputs that are used for agricultural productivity’’

He continued “Currently the population of West Africa is about 392 million and by 2050 the population will go to 800 million and the rural urban migration is increasing, people are moving from the rural areas to the urban areas and the major problem is how do you feed the high population in West Africa, and you cannot feed the population without the use of good agricultural inputs, without good seeds, without the use of fertilizer without increase in productivity of our cultivable land space, there is no way we can produce enough food to feed the population’’

‘’ The essence of the Workshop is to meet together as stakeholders in Nigeria as we have done in Burkina Faso, Ivory Coast and Guinea Conakry to look at what are the challenges in this sector in Nigeria , and also to suggest what are the solutions and also to develop a holistic approach in developing strategy to make available and make accessible agricultural inputs that will be used for agricultural production in Nigeria, the West Africa and Sahel to enhance increase in food production thereby ensuring food security not only in Nigeria” said Prof. Omitoyin

On fish production, CORAF Prof. Said that the Nigerian fish sector recorded a production decline following lack of quality inputs availability, inability of farmers to access fish feed and lack of market among many other things.

“In Nigeria, fish production has been on the increase before but suddenly, it is already going down from production figure of over 306,000 metric tons that we had in 2016, now it has gone down to 286,000 metric tons, and the reason is very simple, there are challenges of quality inputs, feed seeds, the fish feed are too expensive for farmers to be able to access, also we have the issue of market access, infrastructure are not there. These are the major issues within the sector that needed to be addressed so that we can have increase in fish production”, he added.

In his remarks, the Director General of NASC, Dr. Philip Ojo  said the availability of quality inputs is fundamental, and that was why stakeholders convened to look at how they could partner to bridge the gap between farmers and quality inputs.

“Making quality inputs available to farmers is very fundamental and this is one of the reasons why stakeholders came together to look at the challenges and look at how we can partner together to make quality inputs, not only seeds, fingerlings even inputs of fertilizers, particularly agro chemicals and inputs necessary for livestock available to farmers.

“Stakeholders from Benin, Burkina Faso and Nigeria are here to see how we work, challenge it and see how we can move the agric sector forward and also see how we can partner”, Dr Ojo said.

Also, the National Project Coordinator of West African Transformation Program (WAATP), Dr. James Apochi, has said the second phase of the program was going to upscale the climate change smart technologies they had generated saying that “We are at the preparatory stage of the second phase of WAAPP which is going to be West African Transformation Program, and what we are going to do in the new phase of the project, we are going to upscale the climate smart technologies that we have generated.