Abuja: Forum deliberates on fertiliser shortages for farmers

The Federal Ministry of Agriculture and Food Security in collaboration with the Sustain Africa Initiative (SAI), has launched the Agricultural Input Resilience Programme to develop frameworks for the distribution of affordable and high- quality fertiliser and other improved agri-inputs to small holder farmers. The programme is also aimed to develop and strengthen the partnerships/platforms with […]

The Federal Ministry of Agriculture and Food Security in collaboration with the Sustain Africa Initiative (SAI), has launched the Agricultural Input Resilience Programme to develop frameworks for the distribution of affordable and high- quality fertiliser and other improved agri-inputs to small holder farmers.

The programme is also aimed to develop and strengthen the partnerships/platforms with public private sectors, strengthen food systems, and deepen results-based impact reporting on social inventions by the government.

The forum dubbed: Sustainable Food Security and Agro Produce Export  through Mechanisation in Abuja last week had representatives from the ministry, private sector and the farmers.

Speaking during a two-day event, West Africa Programme Lead of the African Fertiliser and Agribusiness Partnership (AFAP), the sponsor of the forum, Nana-Aisha Mohammed said the main focus of AFAP in Nigeria is to provide technical support to the Ministry of Food and Agriculture.

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Again, the backdrop of the office of the Vice President is structuring a Fertiliser Response Initiative that is looking at also helping the government in addressing its security challenge.

She added that, “The forum today is looking at validating a number of research, research that we’ve carried out as an initiative to help frame the strategy then becoming one of the key things that we did was to conduct a food security analysis of the different states in the country, and then zoning those insecurity results into the geopolitical zone. We’ll be validating the outcomes of that.

“We also look at another study where we’re looking at the landscape of the fertilizer landscape to look at the flow of fertiliser from the port all the way to the farmer, trying to identify where the bottlenecks are and how to be able to address that.

“And that is why we currently have the different actors in the room that have a role to play in terms of addressing that we have the ministry, we have the private sector, we have the farmers.”

Daily Trust reports that the federal government convened the event to address the challenges faced by agri-SMEs grappling with fertiliser shortages and price hike in the country.