Moves to enhance growth, food security

Strengthening agriculture and boosting exports competitiveness are strategies that can help transform the economy.

This was the position of the Africa Agric Expo held in Lagos.  Co-sponsored by NAHCO Aviance, the event highlighted the importance of strengthening competitiveness through diversification and value added exports.

Buoyed by favourable external conditions, agro exports had in the past helped to create jobs and earn the much-needed foreign exchange.

However, the country is vulnerable to price swings because its exports are dominated by unprocessed and undifferentiated agricultural products.

Stakeholders said several challenges needed to be addressed to expand the country’s agriculture sector to contribute to structural change, which is vital for sustaining economic growth and development.

One of them was the Group Managing Director/CEO, NAHCO Aviance, Mrs Olatokunbo Fagbemi, who made a presentation on Effective ground handling & preservation – Critical factors for mitigating challenges to agriculture export.

She noted that weak infrastructure have led to high transportation costs and longer transit times. According to her, investing in infrastructure is an important channel through which policy makers can reduce costs and encourage higher-valued export.

She said: “Key factors which holds us back from competing with neighbouring countries such as Ghana are dedicated perishable centre’s at key airports and ports. We have to ensure that all farms, shippers and agents are regulated and accredited to handle agricultural produce.”

She said agriculture plays an important role in international trade and for this reason the country needs to make an effort in this area and move up the value chain, as well as develop a supply industry.

She said: “We have to support farms by reducing taxes and subsidising to help develop reinvestment opportunities and expand business growth over five to 10 years.”

She reitrated the company’s commitment to the growth and development of agricultural export in the nation as it expanded its facilities to boost the volume of export of products it handles by 68 per cent.

“Nahco Aviance has increased its volume of export of agricultural products by about 68 per cent, having spent about $2 million to expand its facilities whilst improving on security for exported products.

“In a few months, we are building a state-of-the-art cold storage hub for both existing and potential clients, including our new clients that want to transship their goods through Nigeria with a bit of packaging.

“Our findings from the airlines revealed that a lot of agricultural products exported are destroyed by the time they get to their destinations, which is largely caused by inadequate storage facilities.

We just got an approval to develop a facility in our packaging warehouse, which will tackle that challenge because it will help exporters to package their products at a particular temperature rate to reduce the incidence of rejection in the International markets.

“We just got an approval to develop a facility in our packaging warehouse, which will tackle that challenge because it will help exporters to package their products at a particular temperature rate to reduce the incidence of rejection in the international markets.

“In a few months we are building a state of the art cold storage hub for both existing and potential clients, including our new clients that want to transship their goods through Nigeria with a bit of packaging.

We are working towards achieving standards, best practices and guidelines for the International Air Transport Association (IATA)’s Centre of Excellence for Independent Validators (CEIV) Fresh Certification which is what guarantees the seamless delivery of perishable cargo.

We also want to provide a CEIV Pharma, which is a project that is designed by IATA, to support the movement of pharmaceutical products via air,”she said

The Vice-President, Nigeria Agribusiness Group (NABG), Mr. Emmanuel Ijewere, urged Nigerians to take advantage of the border closure to develop agriculture in an efficient manner.

According to him, the closure is capable of driving growth which will lead to better agricultural crops, and an expanding services sector.

He said one of the challenges the industry is facing is limited storage facilities that have resulted in high post-harvest loss.

He called for investment in refrigeration system to reduce waste and support farmers business.

He reiterated the group’s determination to work with the government to improve, food security, and attract investment and trade to better the quality of life of Nigerians.

The state Coordinator, Federal Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development, Mrs Abimbola Akeredolu said the Federal Government is working towards building a modern, globally-integrated and sustainable agricultural sector.

According to her, the leadership of the Ministry is determined to ensure agriculture is connected with the processing industry, preservation, markets, exports and global value chains.

The Vice President West African Fertiliser Association (WAFA), Dr. Innocent Okuku, said West Africa’s huge agricultural potential holds the promise of covering much of the region’s food needs, but it is hampered by poor fertiliser usage.

He said there was need to tackle the food and farming conundrum in sub-Saharan Africa that is far from being solved. To this end, he said concerted measures must be taken to ensure stable supply and access to food.

In line with this, Okuku said the Fourth West Africa Fertiliser Forum will hold in Abuja. The event will bring together over 170 people from more than 30 countries representing all the links in the fertiliser supply chain, as well as global producers, technology developers and investors.

While the outlook for Nigeria’s agriculture sector is bright, a Communications Consultant, Wofai Samuel said there were challenges that have the potential to slow investment growth.

She said for Nigeria to feed her people, the government and the private sector must work to radically and substantially increase agriculture productivity and they need to do that through innovation.

She said it was necessary to encourage farmers and businesses to develop the production chain to control the quality of agri-products effectively.

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