Commodity association cautions presidential candidates against plans to reopen land borders

The Forum for Agricultural Commodity Associations Presidents has cautioned presidential candidates who plan to reopen land borders when elected as President, stressing that agriculture should not be politicized as it portends great danger to the wellbeing of the nation and its food security.

The Chairman of the Forum, Sadiq Umar Daware in a statement made available to journalists on Friday, said his major concern is the impact this reopening of land borders and the impact of resumption of importation of rice would have on the teeming rice farmers.

“We received with mixed feelings the news that some of the front runners in the forthcoming presidential elections have been clamouring for the reopening of the country’s land borders and the resumption of importation of rice and other food items that have hitherto been banned by the current administration.

“While we do not discountenance the merit of such a proposition, our position as stakeholders in agriculture and direct beneficiaries of the positive impact of the well-thought-out policy that led to the closure of the land borders and the eventual ban in the importation of rice, we wish to implore proponents on both sides of the divide to consider the advantages vis-a-viz disadvantages of either position in the overall interest of the nation.

“It is our considered opinion that although candidates are required to put forward their value propositions to the electorates during campaigns in order to solicit votes, it is not in the interest of the nation for anyone to politicize agriculture as it portends great danger to the wellbeing of the nation and its food security”, he said.

He further stated that the Forum is viewing with keen interest how the plan will play out given the current security situation whereby there are proliferations of small arms and light weapons despite the recent border closure.

“Would the reopening of land borders not encourage a massive inflow of small arms and light weapons into the country?” he wondered.

“Also, as the Chairman, Forum for Agricultural Commodity Associations Presidents, our major concern would be the impact this reopening of land borders and resumption of importation of rice would have on our teeming rice farmers who have deployed massively to farm following the ban on the importation of rice and our medium and large-scale processors who have invested heavily in setting up processing facilities that are already up and running.

“Fresh on our minds is the lethal blow the uncontrolled importation of textile materials had on our textile industries. The carcasses of moribund textile industries in Kaduna and other parts of Nigeria are staring us in the face and we hope that history would not repeat itself in our lifetime.

“It is a given, that no nation can boast of being sovereign if it still depends on other nations to feed its population”, he noted.

The Forum expressed fear that if the matter of lifting the ban on rice importation is not treated with all the caution it deserves, the current gains by the current administration that has ramped up production, facilitated the establishment of modern processing facilities, and led to significant savings on foreign exchange hitherto spent on importation would be reversed or completely eclipsed.

“As an apolitical body of professionals whose sole passion is to ensure the end-to-end development of agriculture that guarantees food and nutrition security, we are poised to support any policy thrust that is farmer-friendly and is for the overall best interest of the nation.

“Therefore, we promise to continue to work assiduously with any government in power and commit to promoting all policies that would better position all value chain players in the agricultural space to become formidable sources of economic diversification”, the statement added.