The Chairman of Nigeria
Agribusiness Group, Alhaji Sani Dangote, says access to farm inputs will enable farmers to produce more food and high quality seeds.
Dangote gave the advice on Tuesday in Abuja while addressing State House correspondents after the group’s meeting with Vice President Yemi Osinbajo.
He attributed the current scarcity of food and high cost of foodstuff in the market to the failure to make agric inputs available to farmers in the country.
He said, “Now the fundamental problem is the neglect of the capacity of production.
“As you have heard, some of our members are saying that they have been working on the same farm and the issue is that the agric services have been neglected in the past.
“Since agric services have been neglected in the past this is the (cause of the) dwindling problems that we are having.
“When we have a situation where a farm usually can produce 10, 15 or more hectares, comparative to other countries, you find that the same farmland can produce 10 times the size.
He further said, “It is because where other countries are paying attention to the agric inputs, Nigeria has been talking about fertiliser subsidy.
“Fertiliser subsidy is not the solution always. Fertiliser subsidy is one of the inputs in agric.
“We need to have better seed, improved seedlings, research and development and then the best practice in agriculture.
“Now without all these other inputs, if you like you can give a farmer all the fertiliser he needs, productivity will be low, the yield will be so poor and the quality of seed will be bad.’’
Dangote said that the group was making efforts to engage the government through a Private Public Partnership.
He said that by engaging the Nigeria agribusiness group on a continuous and progressive level, the government’s policy on agriculture would be achieved, “We are not asking for money or subsidy.
“We are asking government to engage in its policies whereby research institutions and the universities of agriculture can be engaged in providing the best practices to the farmers.’’
The chairman noted that while demand for food was on the increase “the yield from farm is less and less’’.
He noted that if catastrophe as “Tuta Absoluta’’ which affected tomatoes reoccurred in other produce, it could lead to complete wash away of produce and the prices would sky rocket.
He explained, “Now we need engagement whereby input is readily available, improved seedling is available and a farmer can get 10 to 15 times what he normally gets at the very low end of the game as it is obtainable in some neighbouring countries.