The All Farmers Association of Nigeria (AFAN) has called for the establishment of Agricultural Intelligence Centers (AIC) in all six geopolitical zones of the country to fast-track the attainment of food sufficiency in the relevant staples in the zones.
The National President of the association, Arc Kabir Ibrahim, who made this call while speaking with journalists in Abuja, also advocated for the setting up of Agribusiness Incubation Networks (AIN) to train Nigerians on how to grow the economy and create mass employment through agricultural practices.
Ibrahim noted that Nigeria needs to sustainably feed its growing population through technology and remain a veritable market in Africa, in relation to its unique position in the continent’s food system as a country with the largest population and economy in Africa.
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He explained that Nigeria needs to embark on the mass education of smallholder farmers and potential agriprenuers on the need to produce food all-year-round by embracing innovation, climate-smart agricultural production, sustainable value addition, distribution, and marketing, among others.
According to him, Nigeria needs to make an effort to make all the institutions with cross-cutting relations with agriculture work efficiently, as well as to address the issues around the provision of sustainable energy, the stemming of insecurity, adequate mechanization, providing sustainable subsidies on agricultural inputs, and the evolution of private sector-led commodity exchanges.
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“The investment necessary to ensure the seamless attainment of the aforementioned milestones may appear daunting, but it is absolutely necessary and thankfully doable with sufficient political will.
“The prevailing circumstances in Nigeria call for concerted efforts from the Federal Government, the sub-national governments, the private sector, and, in fact, all Nigerians to address the real issues; otherwise, things will continue to be difficult for all of us.”
