Agro commodities can fetch Nigerians over $100b dollars annually – Expert

…it is time for Nigeria to act the talks, stakeholders say   Speakers at the just concluded 2019 Feed Nigeria Summit believe Nigeria can make much money from the over 52 agro commodities available in the country if properly harnessed. Specifically, Dr Victor Iyama, the President, Federation of Agricultural Commodity Association of Nigeria (FACAN) is […]

• …it is time for Nigeria to act the talks, stakeholders say

 

Speakers at the just concluded 2019 Feed Nigeria Summit believe Nigeria can make much money from the over 52 agro commodities available in the country if properly harnessed.

Specifically, Dr Victor Iyama, the President, Federation of Agricultural Commodity Association of Nigeria (FACAN) is of the opinion that the country can earn over 100 billion dollars annually from these commodities alone.

But some stakeholders at the summit, which ended in Abuja on Wednesday, said it was time for Nigeria to begin action on some of the numerous talks about agricultural potentials of the country.

Just as the FACAN leader regretted that in spite of abundant of these commodities in the country, the agricultural sector had not been able to contribute meaningfully to economic growth since the advent of oil.

“There are about 52 agro commodities that can earn the country about 100billion dollar annually.

“FACAN has put up a position paper to the proper authorities on how this can be achieved. Besides earning revenue for the country, Nigeria has no business with poverty. We are blessed with all agricultural commodities.

“For instance, Indian hemp is a goldmine. We cannot have this million dollar commodity and be burning it. It is an agro commodity that takes only three months to cultivate and we will not wait until other countries overrun us on that anymore,” he said.

Iyama said one of the major things impeding growth in the agricultural sector was smuggling, saying the level of smuggling in the country was worrisome.

“Yes customs is to blame to an extent but we all share in the blame.

“We keep talking about customs not doing enough but the truth is that many stakeholders have to be involved in curbing smuggling.

“The customs has not really man the porous borders as it should. Except we use technology like drones, there is no how customs can effectively police the borders,” he said.

The FACAN president wants total overhauling of the nation’s agricultural system to enable it give maximum benefits.

“Yes we have oil, solid mineral, ICT and other things but we cannot drink oil or eat solid mineral and so, agro economy is the way to go.”

He said one of the ways to boost agriculture in the country was to explore the latest form of warehouses which have facilities to preserve agro commodities.

According to him, building such warehouses can cut down on the amount of post-harvest losses, insisting that the country produces so much but lose 40 to 50 per cent due to lack of proper storage.

Mr. Olufemi Iyanda, one of the participants, said several summits, conferences and many more organised in the name of agriculture had not really resulted into practical action.

“We must act now for the country to yield adequate results,’’ he said.