Ogbeh applauds AFGEAN’s farmers market initiative

The Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development, Audu Ogbeh, has described the Agricultural Fresh Produce Growers and Exporters Association of Nigeria (AFEGAN) farmers market, as an essential tool in addressing issues of food wastage, as it will create market access to farm produce.

Ogbeh, who said this during an unscheduled visit to one of the markets, situated in Ikeja, Lagos, commended the association for the market model it adopted for its fresh produce.

The minister, who applauded the association’s initiative of creating market access, based on what he saw, said despite no support from government, the body has made serious impact at addressing food crisis.

He expressed happiness that most of the farmers in AFGEAN market were women who did not have to depend on government to provide them structures to sell their produce.

Founder and CEO, Maidville Consulting, Adetoun Abbi Olaniyan, who is spearheading the market on behalf of AFGEAN said Ogbeh’s visit is an attestation of government’s commitment to agriculture and the desire to grow the economy through the sector.

“We have been able to draw the attention of government to our market initiative. The minister has applauded our efforts in creating an opportunity for ourselves as farmers.

“As farmers we have decided to do what we can to create market for our produce. We are creating markets to address the greatest challenge of farmers; which is access to the market.

Executive Secretary of AFGEAN, Akin Sawyerr commended efforts of Maidville, who have run with the market idea from inception and has made it happen.

Sawyer said there is great need for farmers to have access to markets to sell their produce and be able to reinvest their profits in the supply chain.

“There is a serious lack of good, clean and well organised markets across the country, where formal supermarkets are clearly unable to meet the growing dietary needs of Nigerian’s growing middle class. This is what AFGEAN hopes to achieve with its farmers market.”