Food security: Agric minister calls for collaboration among agro-dealers

The Minister, Federal Ministry of Agriculture and Food Security, Senator Abubakar Kyari has called for collaboration among agro-dealers to strengthen production and achieve food security.

The Minister made the call during a courtesy visit by the President, Nigerian Agro Input Dealers Association (NAIDA), Alhaji Kabir Umar Fara and his team to his office in Abuja.

Kyari pointed out that the essence of the collaboration was to ensure that products supplied meet with the prescribed set standards in terms of quality and quantity to ensure food sufficiency.

He emphasised the need for the association to sell only certified and approved products sourced from the registered Input producers.

The minister charged the association to come up with policies and programmes that would see to how adulteration of products can be mitigated, noting that the marketers are the face of government.

He also urged farmers to use and apply the entire inputs given, in line with the best agronomic practices for maximum productivity.

Earlier, Fara stated that NAIDA is an umbrella of input distributors in Nigeria to farmers, including fertilizers, organic and inorganic, seeds, petrol chemicals and farm implements.

He said that the association was a structured national body with six zonal vice presidents and state chapter chairmen, with their names and contact with the ministry to ensure synergy at the grassroots and are committed to ensuring that agric business is no longer business as usual.

Fara stated that the association sensitises farmers to buy their inputs from established approved centres.

Speaking further, the President of the association stated that when the cost of Inputs is high, there is a tendency that many agro-dealers would want to go the wrong way, stressing that they must assist the ministry stop the wrong way.

He added, “now, there is a sales permit issued by the ministry, if you don’t have a sales permit and you are guilty of any of the sales of our inputs, you should be arrested immediately.”

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