By John Oba Abuja–
The Governor of Nasarawa state, Mr. Umaru Tanko AlMakura and the Chairman, Senate Committee on Agriculture, Senator Abdullahi Adamu has called for the establishment of a commodity exchanged board that would help regulate the price of agricultural commodities in Nigeria.
Both made the call yesterday, at the opening ceremony of the 2017 National Agric Show and World Food Day organised by the National Agricultural Foundation of Nigeria (NAFN) in collaboration with the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development along Abuja-Keffi road, Nasarawa state.
The governor who was represented by the Deputy Governor, Silas Ali Agara, said despite the achievement recorded in agriculture, the price of food is still on the rise, saying there should be price mechanism in place to ensure that Nigeria farmers get their reward of their labour.
He expressed concerns over high cost of food despite the increase in food production and called for structured mechanism that would discourage arbitrary increase in the price of food commodities.
Lamenting the setbacks witnessed by the sector since the discovery of oil, stressing stressing that the current administration has done so much to revive the sector.
According to him, the sector has significantly contributed to the economy especially from second quarter of the 2016 to the current quarter.
“The value of our export in the first two quarters of this year surpasses that of 2016.
That was a tremendous achievement by this administration.
Despite our landmark achievement in this sector, we must be careful and be watchful on the prices of food in this country remains very high.
“And that might be a bit elusive, just like the senator pointed out that there should be a price mechanism to encourage our local farmers to continue,” Al-makura added.
Adamu on his part disclosed that, such establishment would ensure price stability of agricultural commodities and reduce post-harvest losses.
The Senator, who highlighted contributions of smallholder farmers to food security in the country, said President Muhammadu Buhari succeeded in the advocacy, towards repositioning the agricultural sector.
