Stakeholders task FG on infrastructural gaps in agribusiness

As Nigeria makes efforts to ensure that agriculture plays a key role in its quest for revenue diversification, stakeholders in the sector have charged the Federal Government to bridge the infrastructural gaps in the agricultural sector to aid agribusiness in the country.

The stakeholders made this known to journalists at the ALP agricultural seminal with the theme ‘Transforming Nigeria’s Agriculture and Agro-Allied Industry’ held recently in Lagos.

According to them, addressing infrastructural gaps in the agricultural sector and investing in the entire value chain will promote economic development and growth in the country.

“We need infrastructure to grow our agriculture. Currently, two sections of the Mokwa-Jebba route have broken down completely so the normal route from South-West to the Northern part is no longer available, so we have to take the Abuja-Lokoja route to get to the north,” said Sadiq Usman, head-corporate Business Development, Flour Mills of Nigeria.

“This is hampering our logistical operation in terms of bringing in raw materials and taking up our finished products. It has shut up our cost by about 25 percent,” Usman said.

Indubitably, one of the greatest problems confronting rural farmers and communities in Nigeria is the absence of critical infrastructure such as ‘motorable’ roads, storage facilities and effective rail system among others.

Farmers continue to suffer low levels of agricultural productivity due to infrastructural deficit across the country, which reduces their profit and impact their capacity to expand.

Also speaking at the event, Mawuli Coffie, team leader, West Africa Food Markets Prgramme said that post-harvest losses in Nigeria is huge due to inadequate storage facilities in the country, stating that the country’s post-harvest losses is enough to feed the West Africa region.

“The post-harvest losses we have recorded in Nigeria is very huge. What we have lost in Nigeria is enough to feed the whole of West Africa,” Coffie said.

The provision of critical infrastructure is a pre-requisite for enabling Nigeria stimulate economic growth and to reach the targets for economic diversification.

Adepeju Adebajo , commissioner of agriculture, Ogun State said “we are very aware of the need for infrastructures like roads, rail and ports and the Ogun state government is embarking on very aggressive programs to put that in place.”

“For our fertilizer programme we are deliberating working to ensure for it to be brought by rail so show that the rails are working,” Adebajo said.

 

Josephine Okojie