By Simeon Shodimu
To boost food supply in Nigeria, access to adequate, secured and timely supply of quality seeds is a major hurdle on the nation’s way to achieving food self-sufficiency that demands urgent attention, if the country is to diversify its economy through agriculture, experts said.
To bridge its food production gaps, smallholder farmers in Nigeria must have access to quality seeds alongside effective policies and standard pricing, Ayodeji Balogun, group chief executive officer, AFEX, have said.
In his keynote address at the BusinessDay’s Future of Agriculture Conference on Wednesday, Balogun noted that despite the country is blessed with arable land, smallholder farmers do not have access to quality seeds and seedlings.
For Nigeria to bridge its food production gaps, smallholder farmers must have access to quality seeds alongside effective policies and standard pricing, Ayodeji Balogun, group chief executive officer, AFEX, have said.
In his keynote address at the BusinessDay’s Future of Agriculture Conference on Wednesday, Balogun noted that despite the country is blessed with arable land, smallholder farmers do not have access to quality seeds and seedlings
This according to him, has made the country’s yield per hectare persistently low when compared to its African peers in addition to other bottlenecks that has continued to limit productivity.
We have a production deficit in most of our food production from grains to cereals and poultry,” he said.
He further stated that access to quality inputs such as seeds, adequate infrastructure such as irrigation and logistics farmers can bridge the production shortfall.
“Agriculture is the greatest employer of labour in Nigeria, employing about 36 percent of the country’s population,” he said.
“If you put that into perspective, looking at every other sector, from telecoms to banking to trade to manufacturing to oil and gas, it gives a spectrum of how significant it is for us as a country and our survival,” he added.
According to him, the solutions to challenges limiting farm productivity is dependent on effective policies. Citing the waiver policy as an example, Balogun noted that farmers struggled with low demand and increasing input costs which led to financial losses.
