Post by Trade facilitator on Feb 4, 2012 20:17:35 GMT 1
As the Federal Government renews focus on the agricultural sector, the Area Controller, South, and Project Director of Nigerian Export Promotion Council (NEPC), Mr. Rotimi Mathew Agbogun, has called on the Federal Government to speed-up its agricultural development programmes with the aim of not only local food supply, but also development of the country’s export.
His words: “We can achieve more through proper export development and strategy. We must not import everything, but try as much as possible to meet international standard in agricultural produce so as to export our products to various countries of the world. Despite the constraint in our export, we will definitely get there. The problem of technology may be there but we will certainly, one day, become like the super countries.”
According to him, these will translate to better adoption of technologies in the production process.
Agbogun made this call when the Nigerian Export Promotion Council in junction with Israeli agricultural experts organized training in Lagos for NEPC staff and other aqua-culture farmers from the Institute of Galilee, Israel.
The Agricultural sector is being totally transformed by the federal government to enable the country move from traditional farming to modern agriculture as a business both for small and large-scale farmers. The objective is to ensure food security whilst also promoting exports in agriculture value chains where we have a comparative advantage.
The FG intend to process and add value to different crops such as rice, cassava, sorghum, oil palm, cocoa, cotton etc.
To unleash the potential of this sector, the Federal Ministry of Finance has put in place a mechanism to share risks with the banking sector by guaranteeing 70 per cent of the principal of all loans made for supply of seeds and fertilizer by the private sector this season. In addition, to get the inputs to farmers at an affordable cost, the FG is subsidizing the interest rate on these loans to bring it down from 15 per cent to seven per cent per annum. The Ministry of Agriculture and the Central Bank are collaborating to extend these services for credit availability for the medium term as stated in the 2012 Budget.
Also, an aqua-culture farmer with T. S Farms Nigeria Ltd, a member of commercial Agricultural Development Association in Lagos, Mr. Tunde Sunny, wants the Federal Government to create an enabling environment for mechanized farming. He, however, called on the government to revive the country’s infrastructure, which has broken down, while more focus should be to revive this.
According to him, government should revisit efforts made in the 1960’s to improve the agricultural sector, before the oil boom. Implementing such agricultural programs today means “going back to the basics, in terms of developing our non-oil capacity also.”
Sunny said there are countries where they depend on fisheries as their major agricultural product; adding that government should diversify into other areas and train youths on agriculture.
Source: www.sunnewsonline.com/webpages/news/national/2012/jan/18/national-18-01-2012-0027.html
His words: “We can achieve more through proper export development and strategy. We must not import everything, but try as much as possible to meet international standard in agricultural produce so as to export our products to various countries of the world. Despite the constraint in our export, we will definitely get there. The problem of technology may be there but we will certainly, one day, become like the super countries.”
According to him, these will translate to better adoption of technologies in the production process.
Agbogun made this call when the Nigerian Export Promotion Council in junction with Israeli agricultural experts organized training in Lagos for NEPC staff and other aqua-culture farmers from the Institute of Galilee, Israel.
The Agricultural sector is being totally transformed by the federal government to enable the country move from traditional farming to modern agriculture as a business both for small and large-scale farmers. The objective is to ensure food security whilst also promoting exports in agriculture value chains where we have a comparative advantage.
The FG intend to process and add value to different crops such as rice, cassava, sorghum, oil palm, cocoa, cotton etc.
To unleash the potential of this sector, the Federal Ministry of Finance has put in place a mechanism to share risks with the banking sector by guaranteeing 70 per cent of the principal of all loans made for supply of seeds and fertilizer by the private sector this season. In addition, to get the inputs to farmers at an affordable cost, the FG is subsidizing the interest rate on these loans to bring it down from 15 per cent to seven per cent per annum. The Ministry of Agriculture and the Central Bank are collaborating to extend these services for credit availability for the medium term as stated in the 2012 Budget.
Also, an aqua-culture farmer with T. S Farms Nigeria Ltd, a member of commercial Agricultural Development Association in Lagos, Mr. Tunde Sunny, wants the Federal Government to create an enabling environment for mechanized farming. He, however, called on the government to revive the country’s infrastructure, which has broken down, while more focus should be to revive this.
According to him, government should revisit efforts made in the 1960’s to improve the agricultural sector, before the oil boom. Implementing such agricultural programs today means “going back to the basics, in terms of developing our non-oil capacity also.”
Sunny said there are countries where they depend on fisheries as their major agricultural product; adding that government should diversify into other areas and train youths on agriculture.
Source: www.sunnewsonline.com/webpages/news/national/2012/jan/18/national-18-01-2012-0027.html
