From Ibrahim Ismail, Kano
Kano State governor, Abdullahi Umar Ganduje, on Monday, appealed to
the Federal government to locate a Commodities Certification Center in
Kano, to assist farmers in the state to promote quality of their
produce.
He noted that the mainstay of the state’s economy was agriculture and
its population is the largest in the country, hence the need for its
farmers to adhere to international best practices in terms of agro
outputs, to enhance food production and fast track economic
development.
The governor made the call during the flag off of the nationwide
advocacy on Agricultural Quality Control and Standardization, across
the six geo-political zones, tagged “Zero Reject Initiative”,
at the Government House in Kano.
“It is only when our farm produce are quality assured that they will
become marketable. The more we grow and export good produce, the
better for us as farmers and the better for the national economy”, he
maintained.
Ganduje, however, noted that despite the mass production in the
agricultural sector as championed by the federal government’s
diversification effort, farmers were still finding it difficult to add
value to their commodities, hence the need for there to be more
accessible extension services.
Accordingly, he maintained that “Kano has been selected to be the focal
state for the launch of this initiative, which is aimed at improving
agricultural produce to the standards for export because agricultural
products have been rejected several times by other countries due to so
many factors including lack of traceability of farm produce and
contamination among others.
The Minister of Agriculture, Chief Audu Ogbeh, who was represented by
a director in the Ministry, Dr. Aminu Babandi stated that selection of
Kano for the flag off of the initiative was as a result of the
position of Kano in the scheme of things, pointing out that the advocacy
was targeted at farmers and other stakeholders along the food chain.
According to him, Nigerians deserved good, safe and quality agro
outputs for consumption which should be globally accepted like their
counterparts across the globe, highlighting that quality control of
commodities starts from the field operations, including land clearing,
soil testing, seeds selection, chemical application and good
agricultural practices.
Chief Ogbeh disclosed that the Federal government “will establish
commodities certification centers across the zones to aid
certification, standardization and traceability”, lamenting that the
federal government received 48 notifications from European Union (EU)
between July 2016 and June 2017 on export goods due to aflatoxin and
many other contaminants either biological or chemical foods.
”The ban on dry beans from Nigeria by EU, therefore, geared our
attention to what is an eye opener that we have actually been
consuming poison unknowingly,” he stated, adding that “there is no
time than now to mainstream food safety into agricultural production
if we want to really diversify our economy using agriculture as
veritable tool and also have our own share”.
A prominent farmer and community leader in Kano, Sarkin Noma Alhaji
Nadabo Chiromawa, who also spoke at the occasion, described the
advocacy meeting as a welcome development but request more technical
assistance for farmers, from the Federal government to make the set
goals achievable.
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