The Minister of Agriculture and Food Security, Senator Abubakar Kyari said Federal Government has taken bold steps to address post harvest losses which is one of the major challenges faced by farmers in the country by building silos in farming communities.
By Haruna Salami
The Minister of Agriculture and Food Security, Senator Abubakar Kyari said Federal Government has taken bold steps to address post harvest losses which is one of the major challenges faced by farmers in the country by building silos in farming communities.
Kyari stated this at A One-Day Public Hearing on three bills organized by the Senate Committee on Agricultural Production Services and Rural Development at the National Assembly on Monday.
The three bills for public hearing are:
“Cassava Flour (Mandatory Inclusion into Flour Production) (Establishment) Bill, 2023 (5B. 254);
“The National Food Reserve Agency (Establishment) Bill, 2023 (SB. 139):
“Rice Development Council of Nigeria (Establishment) Bill, 2024 (SB. 541)”.
The Minister said the government has already made a “legacy project” on the post-harvest losses, which includes storage at the community level, different from the silos that are situated in urban areas, but in community levels.
“We want to make a new harvest silo programme that 85% of the storage will be at those farming community levels to replace those local mud silos. So, that’s what we are doing, and also for the cold chain as well. There are two angles to it. The Renewed Hope Infrastructure Fund is doing that, while the National Agriculture Development Fund is also doing that under the ministry”.
Kyari expressed happiness with the falling food prices, but said “we are not where we want to be. We are still on the trajectory of trying to lower food prices”.
The Minister who sympathized with farmers on the rise of price of agricultural inputs said “I’m happy with the crash of prices, but it’s the inputs that we’re working on – fertilizer, irrigation and all that. That is what we are trying to find mechanisms where farmers will have access to credit and at the same time cheaper products for farming.
Senator Saliu Mustapha, Chairman Senate Committee on Agricultural Production Services and Rural Development in his remarks underscored the importance of the three bills two of which were sponsored by him and the third bill which was sponsored by Senator Adamu Aliero (Kebbi Central) on the rice council. “These are very key, important bills that you can see the passion and the enthusiasm of all those that came.
He thanked the minister and most of the stakeholders in the industry or in the farming profession, from the farming to the value chain of those who produce derivatives, from especially the cassava, and also on the second bill that was also sponsored by him, the Food Reserve Agency, which has been very welcomed by everybody.
He assured all the stakeholders thus: “We have listened, we’ve gathered opinion, we will go back and aggregate all this observation and opinion so as to be able to come out with a very robust and well-articulated bill.
Earlier, Aliyu Isah, President of Onion Stakeholder in Nigeria, West and Central Africa said one of the biggest challenges in the onion value chain is lack of modern storage facility, adding that “we produce more than 2.1 million metric tons of onion every year, and we lost more than 50% due to lack of this modern storage.
“I always picture these losses as loss in terms of our resources, loss in terms of our investment, loss in terms of the labuor of the innocent farmers, loss in terms of even the economy of the country. It’s something that we could have harnessed better, and we allow it to go to waste.
“But we’re happy they’re coming with this bill, which is going to help because if they establish a modern storage facility for us, one, they are going to increase our source of income. That means my 50% of earnings that are ordinary will go to waste, will be there for me, will add to my source of income”.