•Fayemi, Alade speak on solutions at
AgraInnovate’s exhibition
The Deputy
Ambassador, Netherlands Embassy, Lagos, Mr Michel Deelen, has said exportation
of agricultural raw materials from Nigeria to European Union countries, the
United States of America and other developed economies is economically
senseless when the country struggles with job creation, industrialisation and
economic cycles of booms and recessions.
The
diplomat, while speaking at the AgraInnovate West Africa’s exhibition lecture
at Landmark Event Centre, Victoria Island, in Lagos yesterday, said Nigeria
could easily become the largest producer of tomato in the world considering
that it has one of the most favourable conditions for growing it.
This, he
added, could be done if the country would work on closing the productivity
gaps, improve on post-harvest management, embrace modern production
technologies, use improved varieties as planting materials and ultimately
process the products rather than export or allow them to waste.
Deelen
emphasised that Nigerian youths could play critical and gap-closing roles in
agricultural processing, packaging and marketing. He added that price stability
is required as an incentive to motivate farmers to intensify production, invest
more in their farming activities as businesses and forecast their
profitability.
The deputy
ambassador also revealed the agro-economic activities of Netherlands in Nigeria,
including setting up potato production and value chain development platforms in
Jos, Plateau State; cassava and soy bean value addition; poultry and dairy
production and processing and horticultural value chain development.
Small scale
farmers, he insisted, are the base in the chain development, and they should be
motivated and equipped to practise agriculture as a business rather than a
means of survival.
He said
Netherlands aims to be the Nigeria’s first in terms of agricultural
partnership, bilateral agro-economic relationship and technology transfer.
Ekiti State
governor, Dr Kayoede Fayemi, speaking on agricultural financing options at the
exhibition, said based on the fact that Nigeria’s population growth rate is at
2.6 per cent yearly, the country would be populated by over 400 million people
by 2050.
This, he
admitted, requires that adequate investments be made in the sector to match
food production with the population growth rate.
Without
adequate investments in the sector, Fayemi said, the objectives of food
sufficiency or security, employment generation, agricultural industrialisation
and economic diversification would become a mirage.
He called
for an eclectic approach to agricultural financing, championed by the private
sector operators and financial institutions, with mind-blowing innovations.
He said his
government has decided to use Ekiti state not only as a model in the education
sector, but also in the all-important food production sector, urging
agro-allied investors to make the state their investment destination.
Similarly, a
former acting Deputy Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), Mrs Sarah
Alade, who disclosed that in 2016 alone, Nigeria spent $22 billion on food
importation, said reliance on food and raw material importation in a country
blessed with huge agricultural resources is not only absurd but also
counter-productive.
“Production
is just one aspect in the agricultural value chains. Others are processing,
packaging, branding and marketing.
“Financial
assistance to a few actors in the value chains is counter-productive,” Alade
added, calling for massive investments in the sector.
The
Programme Director of AgraInnovate, organiser of the exhibition, Mrs Folusho
Olaniyan, said the objectives of the show is to bring solution providers,
technology developers, financial institutions, government and private sector
operators and farmers together synchronically to boost agricultural
productivity, networking and effective food chain development in Nigeria and
West Africa.
Similarly,
the Regional Coordinator of the Cassava: Adding Value for Africa (C:AVA),
Professor Kolawole Adebayo, while shedding light on the activities of the C:AVA
project, said it had contributed significantly to the industrialisation of the
root crop and the roles it plays in the economic diversification of the
country.
He said
Nigeria has been able to fine-tune processing equipment and technologies, and
export the same to other African countries.
Stakeholders
said though technologies have been developed in the cassava value chains, the
economics of the chains remain retarded due to negative attitude towards
cassava flour, poor power supply, slow mechanisation of farm operations and the
subsequent results of low productivity of farmer and high average cost of production.
The Dutchman also stated "it does not make sense we export our cashew nuts and cocoa". That if Nigeria can collaborate with his nation(Netherland ) together we can do the processing here in Nigeria. #happy I was lively present#
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