Nigeria loses N14trn annually to post-harvest surplus mismanagement – ABIC director

Phillips Nto, director, Agribusiness Incubation Centre (ABIC), Michael Okpara University of Agriculture, Umudike, has said that Nigeria loses N14 trillion annually due to its inability to harness surplus harvest.

Nto stated this in his office when the executives of the National Youth Council of Nigeria, Abia State chapter, led by Smith Silvernus, its chairman, paid him a working visit.

The director charged Nigerian youth to embrace agriculture as a legitimate means of becoming potential billionaires.

He also enjoined them to get involved in politics at the local government levels so as to influence decisions on agriculture instead of allowing the older generation to decide their future.

Nto said that youth in agriculture could exploit the opportunities available in the agricultural value chain.

“The next crop of millionaires and billionaires in Nigeria would be youth entrepreneurs who tap the opportunities available in the agriculture value chain.

More than N14 trillion is lost annually from post-harvest mismanagement of agricultural produce,” he decried.

According to him, resourceful entrepreneurs could look at ways of setting up businesses that would preserve surplus harvest or turn them into varieties of consumables. They could also set up factories and transportation businesses.

The director noted that agribusiness also offers a lot of opportunities for youth to invest and make a legitimate living instead of engaging in criminal activities.

He explained that the federal government set up ABIC in some selected universities to offer practical knowledge to the youth.

Read also: Can rail transport save Nigeria’s high post harvest losses?

Nto also commended the federal government and the African Development Bank for the ongoing agro processing zone projects across the country.

He urged that the project should be designed and sited in areas with crop comparative advantage, unlike in the past, when silos were sited indiscriminately, resulting in abandonment.

Smith Silvernus, leader of the delegation, earlier in his speech, informed Nto that the council in Abia State has concluded arrangements to launch a programme tagged “Abia Youths back to Farm”, and solicited for the assistance of ABIC.

He expressed satisfaction with the activities of ABIC and the advice the director has offered the youth to embrace agriculture as a means of survival.

Silvernus said that they would explore means of using their grassroots strength to embrace politics as advised by the ABIC director so as to positively influence local farming.

He informed the ABIC director that they would return with specific areas that assistance would be needed by the organisation.