The Minister of the Federal Ministry of Agriculture and Food Security, Senator Abubakar Kyari, has called for collaboration among agro-dealers in order to increase agricultural production across the value chain and achieve food security.
Kyari made the call during a courtesy visit by the President of the Nigerian Agro-Input Dealers Association (NAIDA), Alhaji Kabir Umar Fara, and his team to his office in Abuja, stating the need for the association to sell only certified and approved products sourced from registered input producers.
The minister explained that the essence of the collaboration was to ensure that products supplied met the prescribed standards in terms of quality and quantity to ensure food sufficiency.
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He pointed out that marketers are the face of government, while charging the association to come up with policies and programs that would see to it that adulteration of products can be mitigated in line with the best agronomic practices for maximum productivity.
The NAIDA president, on the other hand, described the association as an umbrella of input distributors in Nigeria for farmers, including fertilizers, organic and inorganic, seeds, petrol chemicals, and farm implements.
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According to Fara, the association has a structured national body with six zonal vice presidents and state chapter chairmen, with their names and contact with the ministry to ensure synergy at the grassroots, and is committed to ensuring that agribusiness is no longer business as usual.
He stated that any dealer without the sales permit issued by the ministry should be arrested immediately, while calling on farmers to buy their inputs only from established approved centers, stressing that they must help the ministry stop the wrong way.
