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The Nigerian government is expected to earn N18 billion from the 2019 concessions of 19 silos, the Director of Food and Strategic Reserve at the Federal Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development, Engr Haruna Suleman has said.
Engr Suleman who represented the Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development, Dr Mohammad Abubakar at the 2nd West and Central African Postharvest Congress and Exhibition (WCAPHCE), organised by the Centre for Food Technology and Research, Benue State University, said the government concessioned the storage space to the private sector, to enable farmers to have access to storage facilities.
He said this effort by the government was to reduce post-harvest losses which farmers especially those in the rural areas suffer year-round.
“The federal government has also established grain aggregation centres. These centres are to allow farmers to be able to dry their produce, and in doing so, this will reduce post-harvest losses and also add value to whatever is being produced.
“One of the major problems in this country that farmers are facing is post-harvest losses, we have many factors that contribute to these post-harvest losses, it could be equipment that can add value to whatever is being produced, transportation to is also a problem and storage facilities.
“In addressing these problems, the federal government has been able to lease out the silos to the private sector, and we have been able to establish grain aggregation centres that will be able to clean, dry and bag products. This lease agreement of silos to private sectors will attract N18 billion to Nigeria,” he stated.
The Vice Chancellor of Benue State University, Professor Tor Iorapuu during an interview with journalists, said the essence of the program is to rally stakeholders to collectively work towards ensuring the production of indigenous food and reducing post-harvest losses.
“What we are trying to do is to collectively show solidarity and collectively act towards ensuring indigenous food production and ensuring that post-harvest losses are curtailed maximally. This is going to be processed through research and practical strategies that will help even the local farmers and large-scale farmers.
“We are happy that even the federal government has taken steps to provide silos across the country to ensure that the private sector enhances the capacity of local farmers to ensure food storage and post-harvest losses are minimised,” Professor Iorapuu said.
Speaking on the theme of the Conference ‘Upscaling and Promotion of African Indigenous Food’, the Director/Centre Leader of Centre for Food Technology and Research, Benue State University, Dr Barnabas Ikyo said it aims to refocus Nigeria’s attention on indigenous food in order to enhance local production and reduce the food import bill.
“We know that Nigerians who are dependent on imported food can actually decide to go back and look inwards, and we think that while most of our people who produce these indigenous foods are not getting the market for it if we refocus our attention on indigenous foods we will have the market for them, we will empower their economic viability, they will be able to produce more, we will reduce the export-import deficit and we will have our children feed on better and fresh food from our farms,” he added.
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