Food Security: Expert calls for govt intervention on farming inputs, markets
An agric strategist, Mr Richard
Ogundele, has called urged government at all levels to provide
farmers with affordable farm inputs and access to ready markets for
their produce.
Ogundele said in Lagos that such
government intervention would create the environment conducive for
efforts at ensuring food security.
The Food and Agriculture Organization
of the United Nations, or FAO, identified the four pillars of food
security as availability, access, utilization, and stability.
The United Nations (UN) recognized the
Right to Food in the Declaration of Human Rights in 1948, and has
since noted that it is vital for the enjoyment of all other rights
Ogundele is an intervention manager for
Growth and Employment in States (GEMS), a project funded by the World
Bank and the UK Department for International Development (DFID), in
Nigeria.
According to the intervention manager,
government needs to evolve a systemic approach that will guarantee
increased access to finance at low interest rate and aggregation of
clusters for bulk production.
“You cannot control what you do not
contribute to. Government did not have control over the inputs that
farmers used for production that is why prices are high.
“How much access to finance do
farmers have and what is the interest rate? If you produce at a high
cost, you are going to sell at a higher price.
“There are a lot of purchases in
dollars across the borders, which is mopping up our agricultural
produce thereby creating a strain on our internal demand.
“With this, you do not have enough
left for local uses and when there is scarcity there will be high
price for the few available produce,” he said.
Ogundele stressed the need for farmers
to have access to guaranteed market otherwise they would opt to sell
at higher prices across the country’s borders.
“Now that the naira has fallen
drastically, most people want to export and make more money because
they are earning dollars and not paying revenue to government.
“The situation is complex but
government should try to balance it to ensure food sufficiency in the
country,” Ogundele added.
He urged the government to invest in
storage facilities, bridge financing gaps, increase research and
technology and improve farmers’ access to extension workers.
He said once they were adopted, such
strategies would engender rural development, income generation,
employment creation, food security and industrial access to raw
materials.
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