The Minister of Agriculture, represented by the Coordinating Director, Nigerian Agricultural Quarantine Services, Dr. Vincent Isegbe charged stakeholders in the agricultural sector to mainstream food safety.
This is achieved in order to maintain a good standard and forestall the rejection of any Nigerian produce upon export.
This was at the south-west nationwide advocacy on agricultural quality control and standardization across the six geopolitical zones that held in Lagos.
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The minister said: “There is no better time than now to mainstream food safety into agricultural production if we want to really diversify our economy using agriculture as a veritable tool and have our own share of the export at both regional and international markets.”
He added: “Nigerians also deserve good, safe and quality agro-outputs for consumption and should be globally accepted like their counterparts across the globe”.
He noted that the public call for quality control and the proper quality regulation of agricultural commodities was done so as to target stakeholders along the food value chain.
He also said that it was aimed at recognizing the essential role of food safety in the production, preparation, manufacturing, packaging, distribution, storage, sale of food and food products as well as agro produce export promotion.
Governor Ambode, in his opening speech, promised Lagos state would continue to cooperate with the Federal Government in ensuring agriculture remains a primary revenue-base for the country.
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