The All Farmers Association of Nigeria (AFAN) has said Nigeria needs sustainable innovation and knowledge-driven agricultural production to ensure food security and peace.
This was contained in a statement by the president of the association, Kabir Ibrahim, an architect, on Monday in Abuja.
He added that efficient knowledge of agribusiness in 2024 would be Nigeria’s year of agricultural prosperity and sustainable food security.
“To restore Nigeria’s glory and dignity, we need to roll up our sleeves and embark on sustainable innovation and serious knowledge-driven agricultural production and processing, including invaluable value addition.
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“To start with, we should aim at adequately feeding our huge population of over 200,000,000 and still counting, as a short term milestone. This is not very easy for several reasons but definitely doable, with focus and determination,” Ibrahim stated, adding that the government should encourage the private sector by providing an environment for sustainable agribusiness, with the hope of making Nigeria’s agricultural situation better.
He also stated, “Government must work to provide sufficient energy and security for agricultural production, sufficient storage to minimise post-harvest loss, processing for sustainable value addition, good transportation for efficient distribution of goods and services, an efficient commodity exchange, as well as a closely monitored national consumption.”
While calling for the implementation for the national agricultural policy, Ibrahim noted that everyone should concentrate on fully addressing staple commodities in its immediate geographical area.
He added that if Nigeria embarked on full scale industrialisation of its agriculture, the country would be the food basket of the continent.
