The NAFDAC initiative in agro export drive
IMAGINE Nigeria suffused with petro
and agro dollars earned from exported
sweet crude and agricultural products.
The path to her much vaunted economic
development would have been well
paved; and her dream membership of
the club of the world’s most developed
economies would have become a reality.
Her abundant fossil resources that could
have propelled the uncommon
development drive have become a curse,
perhaps an unwarranted distraction.
Agriculture that used to be the mainstay
of the country from the immediate post
independence era to early 1970s was
relegated and ignored by successive
governments. However, with the effects
of mono-cultural economy ravaging the
nation, instability of the global oil
market becoming obvious and the
developed countries’ drive for
alternative to fossil fuel being stepped
up, creative thinking by the nation’s
political leadership and policy makers
has recommended governance paradigm
shift with emphasis on development of
the agricultural potentials of the country,
both for food security and as a
complementary foreign exchange earner.
The new agricultural development
template established on private initiative
is heavy on government support.
Agricultural universities and research
institutes have been established;
agencies like National Agricultural and
Land Development Authority (NALDA)
and River Basin Development
Authorities (RBDA) founded; actions on
Accelerated Food Production
Programmes, a national programme of
Food for All and FADAMA project
stepped up.
The mobilization of peasant farmers has
been underscored and recognised as the
appropriate approach for realistic
agrarian revolution in Nigeria. The
extant food crisis emanates from the
weak agricultural base despite the efforts
of the aforementioned agencies and the
financial provision of the Nigerian
Agricultural and Co-operative Bank
(NACB) for agricultural production
within the country. The Federal
Government has also put in place
mechanisms for funding and insurance.
They include the Agricultural Credit
Guarantee Scheme; the Nigerian
Agricultural Insurance Company (NAIC),
and Commercial Agricultural Credit
Scheme (CACS). The Central Bank of
Nigeria (CBN) in conjunction with the
Bankers’ Committee has had to increase
lending to the agricultural sector from 1
to 5%.
By these measures, who would not be
excited that a solid foundation for
agricultural revolution in Nigeria has
been laid. And why would Nigeria not
reap bountifully from her massive
agricultural potentials? The answer is
that the optimization of the nation’s agro
potentials was dampened by the
placement of a one-year embargo (July
2015 –June 2016) on some of its
agricultural products by the European
Food Safety Authority. The affected agro
products included beans, sesame seeds,
melon seeds, dried fish, meat, peanut
chips and palm oil. While the melon
seeds were said to have been
contaminated with aflatoxin, others were
said to contain high levels of injurious
and deadly contaminants such as
mycotoxins, pesticide residues as well as
abnormal level of dichlorvos pesticides
(in the case of beans). The development,
which sent shock waves through both
government and business circles,
especially coming at a time of renewed
drive to diversify the nation’s economy
to wean it from oil dependency, has
unarguably set the nation many years
backward.
The unsavoury development has
compelled the National Agency for Food
and Drug Administration and Control
(NAFDAC) to initiate professionalised
strategies to tackle the ugly situation.
Consequently, NAFDAC has unfolded
series of agro export redemption
packages in an attempt to shore up
Nigeria’s reputation and competitiveness
in global non-oil export markets. Reeling
out the scientific based solutions recently
in Abuja, the Agency’s Director General
Dr. Paul B. Orhii, said the orchestrated
ban on Nigeria’s agro products by the EU
was bad news he has been challenged to
redress.
The Agency, Dr. Orhii said, would rely on
ultra-modern cutting-edge technologies
to address all the issues that gave vent to
the EU ban to avoid further extension
beyond the June 2016 timeline. NAFDAC
is expected to deploy massive mobile
motorised testing laboratories to all
nooks and crannies of the nation
including remote farms, agro products
export processing centres, produce
market centres, sea and air ports, as well
as land border stations. The Agency’s
personnel are said to be set for this all
important national assignment.
Intensive training/supervision of
farmers, produce marketers and other
stakeholders in agro export business is
also on the card. The success of export
trade depends seriously on consistent
production of quality goods and services,
which meet established quality and
safety standards, through the Good
Manufacturing Practices (GMP) and
hygienic practices. The NAFDAC has
developed competencies on all of these
areas. It has in place sanitary and
phytosanitary measures, and possesses a
very active website displaying its export
guidelines. Serious minded agro
exporters must comply with the rules of
the game – meeting global standard
specifications. They would be adequately
provided with the required know-how on
food storage, ideal packaging practices
and other relevant quality control
measures in which NAFDAC is their ally
in this regard.
The Presidency, National Assembly, as
well as the nation’s economic managers
must rise to this historic call to rescue
the nation from the self-inflicted doom
by rallying round NAFDAC’s well
conceived initiative as “it will be
improper for us to go to sleep while our
roofs are on fire.”
• Ikhilae, a Lagos-based public affairs
analyst, wrote via
martinsikhilae@ymail.com
0 Comments :
COMMENT