The African Agriculture Technology Foundation (AATF) has raised concern over the lack of consistent, conducive, and enabling agricultural policy to transform agricultural practices in Nigeria and on the continent of Africa.
The Executive Director, AATF, Dr. Canisius Kanangire, while speaking at a media interaction in Abuja, called for the need to accelerate and adopt the changes that are needed to really revolutionize the agriculture sector.
Kanangire noted that though commitments were made by heads of state on the need to transform agriculture into an economically sound sector, when it comes down to having those policies and strategies to implement the commitments, they start in very slow motion and at some point pull in different directions.
ECOBasic calls for Adoption of Improved Seed
He stressed the importance of having a scorecard every two years on the progress made in the sector, noting that this would help to fast-track policies and regulatory frameworks that have been quite slow in ensuring an enabling environment to improve the food system.
The AATF boss added that a lack of political will by policymakers has badly affected the rate of adoption of biotechnology products, which is still very slow in Africa due to a lack of advocacy as well as a lack of the required political push.
HOMEF Raises Concern on Dangers of Food Colonialism
He cited an example with the registration of seed varieties, where he pointed out that the processes are very tedious and slow, not only because of the technical part but mainly due to policies that are not conducive to the transformation needed in the agricultural sector.
According to him, their focus is to ensure that they continue to work to provide technological solutions to address many challenges faced by farmers by developing seed varieties to address the issues of drought, stem borer, and weeds that frustrate the farmers.
