Stakeholders seek Fed Govt’s intervention in food production

Stakeholders in agriculture have urged the Federal Government to intervene in input distribution, access to finance and market for small farmers to enhance food productivity.

Speaking at a roundtable yesterday in Abuja, Convener of Agricultural Development Project, Mr Sadiq Daware, reiterated the need for smallholders to receive training on how to utilise resources for farming.

He said:  “We have the land and natural resources to produce enough food in Nigeria, and we have the raw materials used to produce fertiliser, herbicides, among others”.

“A bag of maize costs N65,000 to N75,000, this is an embarrassment, because we have what it takes to produce and sell at a lower rate. We have millions of hectares to cultivate what we should eat.

“For a change, practitioners must meet policy makers halfway and match words with action to create a synergy that would allow for food security that is critical to national security and economic development”.

President of National Cotton Association of Nigeria, Mr Anibe Achimugu, said the country is not self-sufficient due to the high cost of input and other challenges facing the sector.

He called on stakeholders to assist the government in paving the way for the private sector/private practitioners to be involved in policy design development intervention planning.

“Interventions in agriculture in the last 20 years have not impacted the way it ought to so we want this intervention to be sustainable and the best way is to work with practitioners”, he said.