Farmers, value-chain operators unveil agenda for incoming govt

Stakeholders in the nation’s agricultural sector have tasked the incoming administration of General Muhammadu Buhari on the need to implement neglected agricultural policies through schemes and empowerment of critical institutions.

The stakeholders, while unveiling their agenda for the incoming administration decried the continued dependence on imports by the country especially for commodities that the nation has capacity to produce.

Chairman, Agric Group, Lagos Chamber of Commerce and Industry (LCCI), Wale Oyekoya, while addressing a press conference in Lagos, yesterday, stated that the Agricultural Transformation Agenda, despite being a lofty plan is based on propaganda as government has failed woefully in implementing such policies.

Top on the list on the agenda is the need to reduce food imports as well as the need to make provisions for adequate finance to aid growth of the sector.

“A lot of funds in terms of loans and grants have been approved for the agric sector. All these funds should have made us self-sufficient in food production rather than depend on importation but majority of the money were embezzled. Our commercial banks need to be restructured and mandated to fund real farmers and not political farmers. No farmer can survive under the current commercial interest rate of 26 per cent.

“Nigeria still spends over N450 billion on food imports. These are foods that can be produced in Nigeria by local farmers if the business environment is conducive. Shoprite and other big supermarkets have been the gainer while local production suffers as the nation has been turned to a dumping ground.

“To ensure that the policies succeed, government needs to ensure adequate budgetary allocation for at least 10 per cent of the nation’s budget; review of the subsisting schemes and reforms to make them more supportive of farm output; improve access to funds with single digit interest rate and less cumbersome requirements; place ban on importation of commodities that can be produced in the country; improve agric value chains as well as address post-harvest losses by providing cold storage facilities”, Orekoya added.