FG commences nationwide advocacy on agric quality control

Th e federal government, through the federal ministry of agriculture and rural development has commenced the nationwide advocacy on agricultural quality control and standards. Briefi ng the media on the fl ag off in his offi ce in Abuja last Friday, the Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development, Chief Audu Ogbeh, said Nigeria does not have its own standard in food production as the standard must be the same world over. He said the purpose of the sensitisation is not just about export, but about what Nigerians consumed and the country’s nutrition security. “We are moving away from just eating much into eating well.

Th ere is a big diff erence between both, unfortunately, we are actually eating poison because of the way we handled our food production, right from the seeds we cultivate to the fertilizer we used, to the chemicals we spray, right to the way we processed, preserved and packaged the food, determines, whether we are eating well or eating badly. So it is not about what we export, but about the health of the larger society. “We need to educate the farmers very intensively, because it begins right from the farm, the type of seed, water used for irrigation. He however lamented that some people are working on adulterating fertilizer. Th ey have fake the federal government fertilizer bag and fi lling it with kaolin and sharp sand, selling it to farmers. “Th ank God the DSS has been arresting some of them for prosecution. i want to send this warning clearly to fertilizer blenders, don’t be tempted to cut corners, if we catch any one, we will shut you down and believe me it would take you a long time in any court to get your business revived. If we catch you, you will have a long long journey with the police and the court and we shall shut down your operations.

“We brought down the price of fertilizer to N5500 a bag because the president made arrangement with the Kingdom of Morocco and the result has been very favourable, for those who abuse it, you will have days of tears even if you think you are making money now,” he warned. On exportation, he said: “As for the export, we need to be very careful this time. Th ere must not be news that Nigeria goods are rejected in abroad. We must ensure standard and quality this time. Earlier, the Permanent Secretary in the ministry, Dr. Bukar Hassan, welcoming the stakeholders, said the eff orts to provide quality consumption and export drive is a long overdue issue in Nigeria, particularly now that the government is determined to replace oil as the major source of income for the country with agriculture. He said as a ministry, it is committed to eradicating the rejection of agric produces even for local consumption and in the global market. “We want to be one Africa country with no equal in terms of exporting our agricultural produces. Presidential order has been given to dedicate a third of our export produce without hindrance. All hands must be on deck to drive this course and this is the essence of going into nationwide sensitization to ensure that this matter reaches the grassroots to our farmers,” he said.

Leave a Reply