The President of the All Farmers Association of Nigeria (AFAN), Arc Kabir Ibrahim, has called on the Nigerian government to invest in science, technology, and innovation (STI), which include genetic modification and genome editing, to produce more food for the populace.
Ibrahim made this call at the opening of the Annual Agricultural Show organised by the National Agricultural Foundation of Nigeria (NAFN), held in Nasarawa State.
Arc Ibrahim, who is also the Chairman of the Board of Trustees of NAFN, urged the government to provide incentives for smallholder farmers to scale their productivity.
He said Nigeria is grappling with challenges in its food system, which led to the President declaring a state of emergency on the attainment of food security in the midst of insecurity, abysmal mechanisation, overreliance on rain-fed agriculture, and a host of other threat factors.
Listing some of the immediate actions needed to scale up food production, Ibrahim said “the incentivization of the SHFs (smallholder farmers) to scale their productivity is absolutely necessary through the stemming of insecurity that impedes seamless access to farms.
“The provision of direct subsidies on seeds and all inputs by all tiers of government (federal, state, and LGAs), the continuous provision of mechanisation through the provision of light agricultural farm machinery before making heavy-duty tractors, combine harvesters, etc. readily available, enabling the impetus to do all-year-round production through irrigation
“The expansion of the adoption of STI (Science, Technology, and Innovation), including embracing biotechnology leading to GM and genome editing, ensuring industrial harmony among all stakeholders in Nigeria’s agriculture space, unleashing processing as well as providing ready-produce markets or commodity exchanges, as well as the provision of effective storage and transportation to mitigate post-harvest loss,
“More specifically, the need for direct subsidy on fertilisers will be firmed up by patronising the nearly 70 blending
companies created through the Presidential Fertiliser Initiative (PFI)”.
He harped on the need to resuscitate the PFI and make fertiliser available and affordable for smallholder farmers.
The AFAN President further stated that the government must resuscitate the NFRA (National Food Reserve Agency), appoint seasoned and educated farmers as board chairs of the National Agricultural Seed Council, the Agricultural Research Council of Nigeria, and the National Agriculture Development Fund, and also make good seeds easily accessible and affordable to smallholder farmers.
On irrigation, Ibrahim said there should be a very strong synergy between the Ministry of Agriculture and Food Security and the Federal Ministry of Water Resources and Sanitation to ensure all-round agricultural production using our irrigable land efficiently by exploiting our dams and even groundwater.
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