At the flag-off of the nationwide advocacy on agricultural quality control and standardization, the Minister of Agriculture, Audu Ogbeh, said the Federal Government would soon establish commodities’ certification centres.
The certification centres will cut across the six geopolitical zones to aid certification, standardization and traceability.
The Minister who was represented by a Director, Aminu Babandi, said the FG had, between July 2016 and June 2017, received 48 notifications from EU on aflatoxins and other contaminants about exported goods.
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He said: “The ban on dry beans from Nigerian origin by EU, therefore, geared our attention to what is an eye opener that we have actually been consuming poison unknowingly”.
Mr Ogbeh said Nigerians deserve to always consume agro-products that are also globally accepted.
He also said this period would be the right time to mainstream food safety into agricultural production if the country really wants to diversify her economy.
He further added: “There is no 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 also have our own share”.
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The quality control starts from the field operation, land clearing, soil testing, seeds selection, chemical application and good agricultural practices.
Governor Abdullahi Ganduje in his own address had said agriculture was the only antidote to the nation’s economic crisis and that he was happy with the attention President Muhammadu Buhari is giving to agriculture.
