The Forum of Agricultural Commodity Associations Presidents has called on the federal Government to address the challenges currently facing the country’s agricultural sector to avert a food crisis.
They also called for collaboration with the Federal Ministry of Environment and other relevant organisations to promote the adoption of climate-smart agriculture to mitigate flood and other climate-change related challenges.
Chairman of the Forum, Sadiq Umar Daware, yesterday in Abuja, said the association is willing to work with the government to formulate business-friendly policies that would ensure adherence to best-in-class quality standards by agro-processors and marketers.
Daware noted that the forum is willing to partner with research institutions and other knowledge-based organisations, both locally and internationally, to increase the capacity of farmers and provide seamless access to information on Good Agricultural Practice (GAP).
He noted that the challenges facing the country are a collective task that must be dispassionately pursued.
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He said: ‘’We are currently being inundated with a myriad of challenges for which we seek urgent government intervention. These challenges range from boko haram, banditry, kidnapping, lack of consistent access to affordable finance, unavailability of quality inputs, skyrocketing prices of inputs, high post-harvest losses, fragmented and unstructured market and the dangers associated with negative climate change.
Sadly, the situation has been exacerbated by the flash floods currently being experienced across the country and the drought in others.
‘’With the looming food crises occasioned by the war in Ukraine, Climate change and other localised challenges, it is incumbent upon the government and all other relevant stakeholders to work together so as to attack this hydra-headed monster frontally.
‘’The association is willing to partner and collaborate with other relevant bodies that ensure that Nigeria’s agricultural products gain acceptance and value in the international market and meet export standards
‘’The association is willing to partner with the government to ensure food and nutrition security and the eventual attainment of zero- hunger in the nation.We wish at this point to make a clarion call to the government to take immediate and urgent steps to salvage the situation before it snowballs into a crisis of devastating proportions’’.
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