AFAN wants farmers’ input in decisions on agric

AFAN Chairman, Lagos Chapter, Otunba Femi Oke, in an exclusive interview with Daily Trust, said farmers were in the best position to advise the government on how to develop the agricultural sector.He said that there was an urgent need to reach out to farmers in the rural areas because most of them were excluded from […]

AFAN Chairman, Lagos Chapter, Otunba Femi Oke, in an exclusive interview with Daily Trust, said farmers were in the best position to advise the government on how to develop the agricultural sector.
He said that there was an urgent need to reach out to farmers in the rural areas because most of them were excluded from the government’s decision making process, adding that farmers needed to be assisted, financially, to improve their agricultural activities.
Oke said the raw materials needed by the big companies along agricultural value chains were produced by the local farmers, adding that empowering them would lead to an increase in production of the raw materials needed for the economic development of the country.
He lamented that most of the government’s intervention fund did not get to the local farmers who, he said, needed them most, advising that government, at all levels, should restructure their intervention programme to benefit the local farmers.
He noted that if the federal government is serious about agriculture, investment in agro-processing value chain is crucial at this time in the Nigerian economy.
According to him, more value is created in agro-processing than in agriculture, saying that the government must consider more funding for processing activities.
He said high quality jobs abound in processing agricultural produce, adding that agro-processing can drive agriculture and create markets for farmers.
The AFAN boss said it was important for the country to produce what its people consume, adding: “The choice of buying locally produced products is for everyone, and it should be a priority. Right now, too much of the food that we consume in this country is not produced locally, it is produced somewhere else and imported.”
Oke said that the government can use different instruments to support the campaign for use of local goods such as trade policy instruments, which would make it a necessity for all manufacturers to strictly abide by international standard in their production process.