The National Council on Agriculture and Rural Development, NCARD, has urged the Nigeria Customs Service to police the nation’s borders properly to prevent illegal importation and smuggling of rice, livestock and fish products. It identified the illegal importation of the products through unmanned porous borders as a major challenge consistently affecting the growth of the Nigerian agricultural products. In a communiqué issued at the 41st Meeting of the National Council on Agriculture and Rural Development held in Kano, under the chairmanship of the Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development, Chief Audu Ogbeh, recently, the Council noted the various activities of the Federal government towards developing the agricultural sector and declared its support towards achieving the required goals.
While commending government’s efforts towards the review of the Growth Enhancement Support Scheme, GES, with a view to addressing noticeable areas of weaknesses in the Scheme and enhancing farmers’ access to agricultural inputs; the Council noted that the establishment of the Fund for Agricultural Finance in Nigeria, FAFIN, would go a long way as a new innovation for long term loans to Small and Medium Enterprises, SMEs, in Agriculture across all the six (6) geopolitical zones. It also noted the ongoing efforts to resuscitate the National Agricultural Extension System, and encourage all States to play their expected roles.
The Council disclosed that the status of the implementation of Staple Crop Processing Zones, SCPZs, in the selected sites would reduce post-harvest losses as well as adding value to locally process foods. This is even as it pointed out that the status of implementation of the Youth Employment in Agriculture Programme, YEAP, and endorsed the current effort of the Federal Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development in developing young generation of successive farmers.
The Council solicited support and commitment from States to provide funds for provision of required logistics to achieve needed collaboration for the successful implementation of the NAPI. It therefore endorsed the provision of credit facilities to the ailing ginneries by the Bank of Industry, BOI, from the N100 Billion Cotton, Textile and Garment, CTG, Fund to resuscitate their operations, while encouraging the existing and operating ginners should also explore the BOI window, to set up delinting/dehauling machines, where desirable.
