Stakeholders in the nation’s agricultural sector have tasked the
incoming administration of General Muhammadu Buhari on the need to implement
neglected agricultural policies through schemes and empowerment of critical
institutions.
The stakeholders, while unveiling their agenda for the incoming
administration decried the continued dependence on imports by the country especially
for commodities that the nation has capacity to produce.
Chairman, Agric Group, Lagos Chamber of Commerce and Industry
(LCCI), Wale Oyekoya, while addressing a press conference in Lagos, yesterday,
stated that the Agricultural Transformation Agenda, despite being a lofty plan
is based on propaganda as government has failed woefully in implementing such
policies.
Top on the list on the agenda is the need to reduce food imports
as well as the need to make provisions for adequate finance to aid growth of
the sector.
“A lot of funds in terms of loans and grants have been approved
for the agric sector. All these funds should have made us self-sufficient in
food production rather than depend on importation but majority of the money
were embezzled. Our commercial banks need to be restructured and mandated to
fund real farmers and not political farmers. No farmer can survive under the
current commercial interest rate of 26 per cent.
“Nigeria still spends over N450 billion on food imports. These are
foods that can be produced in Nigeria by local farmers if the business
environment is conducive. Shoprite and other big supermarkets have been the
gainer while local production suffers as the nation has been turned to a
dumping ground.
“To ensure that the policies succeed, government needs to ensure
adequate budgetary allocation for at least 10 per cent of the nation’s budget;
review of the subsisting schemes and reforms to make them more supportive of
farm output; improve access to funds with single digit interest rate and less
cumbersome requirements; place ban on importation of commodities that can be
produced in the country; improve agric value chains as well as address
post-harvest losses by providing cold storage facilities”, Orekoya added.
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