Groundnut association congratulates ministers, solicits support

·         Wants proper monitoring of supply and allocation of inputs

The National President of Groundnut Producers, Processors and Marketers Association of Nigeria (GROPPMAN) Hon. Aimu Foni has congratulated the four ministers in charge of Agriculture and Rural Development,  Alhaji Sabo Nanono and his state counterpart Mustapha Baba Shehuri, and Federal Ministry of Industry, Trade and Investment (FMITI) Otunba Adeniyi Adebayo and Ambassador Mariam Katagun for their choice by President Mohammadu Buhari as members of his executives. This was said in a statement made available to foodfarmnews in Abuja.

In the statement, Hon. Foni who hailed their appointments as being towards making Nigerian economy more proactive and viable through agriculture repositioning as agribusiness at all the value chains, solicited support that would reposition groundnut productivity to the fullest revenue generation and economic capacity for all his members across the states of the federation.

 He commended the appointment of the ministers saying he had no doubt that the agricultural economy would soon encounter a positive revolution as the wealth of knowledge the four personalities have brought begin to bear positive fruits on food production, processing and marketing through intensive support to stakeholders at the value chains thereby uplifting the sector to a glorious expectation in terms of revenue generations.

The NGROPPMAN President implored the ministers to deploy an efficient method of effective monitoring strategy for ensuring timely delivery of inputs to farmers along with tractors for cultivation  in each state, saying many of his members at the state level did not get ‘aflasafe’ that billions of naira were spent to procure and distributed free to producers.

His words:”We appeal for proper monitoring during supply and allocation of all agricultural inputs and machineries where billions of naira will be spent on agriculture, and there will be no impact on farmers, production and processing. We also appeal for the procurement of micro small scale groundnut oil processing machines for the women in the rural areas at a subsidised rate. 

Mechanization to cultivate land by members is another great challenge as there are no tractors and the few available are very expensive. We appeal that the ministers assist our association by giving a tractor to each groundnut producing at a instalment payment’’

Hon. Foni  said further that ‘’ we strongly believe if we get the production right with good agricultural practices we will be able to get good groundnut that can be sold at both national and international markets. And we can also produce good edible groundnut cake and forage for animals and livestock feeds. Groundnut is one of the commodities that can quickly turn Nigerian economy to better because of its shortest duration in maturity and availability of good land across many states with man power.’’

The president also appealed that groundnut should be included among the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) anchor borrower programme crop beneficiaries saying its short duration of time from production to marketing made it a very bankable produce that can quickly repay back any loan invested on its productivity as more aflasafe are made available to the real farmers towards ensuring standard and rejection against aflatoxin in the global market.