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By Steve Agbota
Against the backdrop of Nigeria’s current economic constraints, stakeholders have called for sub-national agricultural practice in the country.
According to the Chief Executive Officer of AgroNigeria, Mr. Richard-Mark Mbaram, what the country really needs is the agric practice done at the sub-national level, not at the federal level.
Mbaram, who disclosed this at a recent press conference in Lagos to announce the first South West Agricultural Summit (SWAS) slated for next month in Ibadan, Oyo State, said that agriculture is the tool to bail the country out of the current economic recession.
He added: “Constitutionally, agriculture is also a mandate area for three tiers of the government. So stakeholders have felt that it was necessary to bring sub-national government into the action perimeters of the sector, at policy level, practice, trade, export level and also at research level. Research of course, will be connected to extension.
“We need to bring a lot of life into agriculture at the sub-national level of our existence as a nation. So this is the first in the series of agro-economy zone based activities. We are going to have South west Agric Summit as a first, while the summit would also be replicated in the other 5 geo-economic zones respectively,” he added.
The South West Agricultural Summit (SWAS) 2016 is convened by AgroNigeria in partnership with the Development Agenda for Western Nigeria (DAWN) Commission, Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), Nigerian Export Import Bank (NEXIM), Nigerian Incentive-Based Risk Sharing System for Agricultural Lending (NIRSAL), Nigerian Export Promotion Council (NEPC) and the Nigerian Investment Promotion Council (NIPC).
Beyond the event, he said there is a strategy committee put in place called Nigeria Agriculture Observatory (NAO), which comprises six-man task team to address issues regarding policy and implementation in the agric sector across board.
He explained: “If there is a stakeholder that has problem with policy in any state, for in stance in Ondo, Ekiti, even Maiduguri, they can actually come in and state their case, which will be researched upon.”
Critical stakeholders that are supposed to address those problems will be identified, what steps need to be taken will be also be identified and timeline set for possible redress. Beyond that, they will publish a report which will set a way where government can be held to operate in a more responsible manner to the sectoral players.”
The summit also has its focus on local farmers through their channels, which include All Farmers Association of Nigeria (AFAN) and Federation of Agricultural Commodity Association of Nigeria (FACAN).
