Nigeria unable to meet 40,000mt vegetable demands

The Nigeria Agricultural Quarantine Service (NAQS), has lamented Nigeria’s agricultural potential it is unable to meet the demand for 40, 000 metric tons of vegetable.
Speaking yesterday at a one day workshop organised in partnership with COLECAP, recently in Abuja, NAQS Coordinating Director, Dr.
Vincent Isegbe, said these lapses exist because farmers are not totally complying with regulations and advice on production of the vegetables.
He said Nigeria currently does not export fruits but it imports lots of apples for local consumption.
Isegbe who emphasised that balanced diet cannot be achieved without fruits and vegetables said through advocacy and active participation of crop life, an international agriculture chemical company, chemical level on agric produce was declining.
According to him, the country has a demand of 40, 000 metric tons vegetable but is unable to meet the demand.
“We can grow all these commodities all year round either winter or summer.
We have a great opportunity to send these commodities to European nations, America during the time of winter or when the winter is just finishing, so the market is always there.” However, he described the workshop as an opportunity for stakeholders to discuss and provide sustainable solutions for fruits and vegetable export to other nations.
The event was themed the “Role of Public and Private Sectors in Sanitary and Photosanitary Systems for the Fruits and Vegetable sub-Sector.” “In term of the exporters, we have gone to the point to discuss with major exporters, for you to be able to export, you need to buy from the farmers we had trained to know specific commodity.
“If you buy and have issue with them, with the structure that we have put in place, it is easy to trace back, so there is a chain of flexibility at any point in time which will really help us on our export.
“With that, we will know if the farmers are complying with our regulations and advice.
So far so good, the chemical level is reducing.
Though it is at a slow pace but it’s reducing.
“We have decided to pick 10 commodities and do basic analysis on those commodities so that any young man that is educated and want to go for export will have the basics and understanding of the commodities,” he added.