FG urged to discourage agro products import

The federal government has been urged to go beyond the closure of the Benin and Niger land borders to introduce policies that will discourage importation of agro products. The latest call was made by Chika Ife Emma-Okeke, the Executive Director of Feed Africa Advocacy Network (FAAN), an international non-governmental organisation committed to achieving food security […]

The federal government has been urged to go beyond the closure of the Benin and Niger land borders to introduce policies that will discourage importation of agro products.

The latest call was made by Chika Ife Emma-Okeke, the Executive Director of Feed Africa Advocacy Network (FAAN), an international non-governmental organisation committed to achieving food security in Africa.

Emma-Okeke said while the closure of the land borders was a commendable effort, the government should resist every pressure to rescind the decision because it is a crucial way to sustain local production.

He, however, noted that Nigeria was not growing enough for its population and as such the government should put in place policies to engender investments in the agricultural sector so as to stimulate production.

He added that the border closure has shown that the successes thought to have been recorded in rice production were not felt by the masses. He said in view of this, there was need for accurate statistics as far as production is concerned.

Emma-Okeke also called on the government to augment the allocation to the Ministry of Agriculture in the supplementary budget, noting that the present allocation to the ministry in the 2020 Appropriation Bill does not reflect the government’s talks about taking agriculture seriously.