The Indian government has pledged to support Nigeria’s diversification drive by helping the country meet exportable targets of agricultural commodities such as pulses, cashew nuts, sesame seeds, and sheer butter.
Given the collaboration, the Associated Chambers of Commerce of India (ASSOCHAM) and Nigerian Association of Chambers of Commerce and Agriculture (NACCIMA) also signed a Memorandum of Understanding, aimed at match-making Indian and Nigerian companies to widen areas of Agribusiness cooperation.
Speaking on Tuesday in Abuja at the Nigeria-Indian cooperation meeting, the Indian High Commissioner to Nigeria B.N Reddy told BusinessDay that, “Agricultural revolution in India has led to its self-sufficiency in Agriculture in the 1980s while utilising modern technologies, improved varieties of seeds, improved yield of fertilizers, and irrigation systems to farmers. “India is producing 275 million tons of food grains. The second-largest producer of food and vegetables, and one of the leading exporters of food and agricultural commodities, to the tune of $40bn this year running.”
He pointed out that Indian is ready to share its experience in the last few decades in the agricultural sector. “Our goal for this event is to bring together relevant stakeholders, the government, resource persons, private sector representatives from India and Nigeria, and equally the financial institutions in both countries, such as and to identify areas of cooperation between both countries,” he said.
Audu Ogbeh, Nigeria’s Minister of Agriculture said, “The list of exportable items ready for export in Nigeria consists of pulses, sesame, and cashew nuts. India is almost 80% vegetarian. They are asking us to produce and export pulses to them which has $1 billion markets. “We are also discussing with them on cashew – mainly because we are now number four in cashew production in the World. From the programme we are launching next year April, we would be targeting planting 3 million seeds a year.”
Speaking further, the Minister pointed out that Nigeria has an increasing population galloping at about 3.2%, and more children are born here in Nigeria than in the entire European Union daily. “We are heading for 450 million by 2050. Where are we going to find the rice, the milk, the Sugar, to feed the population, and even Central and North Africans that come in here to buy food from us ?”In every disaster,, there is an opportunity. We have the land, the air, the water for agriculture, this is the time to upscale our efforts and cooperation with our foreign partners.”
Adetokumbo Kayode, Vice President of NACCIMA also noted that the chamber which has 50 000 members, would use its platform to deepen opportunities between Nigeria and India. “The entire Agriculture value chain is our area of concentration now, and we are inaugurating a task team at the chamber immediately follow up on our resolutions with them. We are also looking at Technology, advanced ICT, Manufacturing sector,” he said.
