By Gabriel Ewepu, Abuja

THE apex organisation of farmers in the country, All Farmers Association of Nigeria, AFAN, Monday, counseled the Federal, State, Local Governments and the private sector on how to galvanize 2024 food production.

The counsel as contained in a New Year statement signed by the National President, AFAN, Arc Ibrahim Kabir, pointed out that it is pertinent for the government to work on quick wins or short-term deliverables, and medium and long-term deliverables.

Kabir also expressed optimism that if knowledge-based agribusiness is deepened, 2024 may be “Nigeria’s year of agricultural prosperity, sustainable food security and relative peace”, and added that it is a collective task for all Nigerians to work assiduously on sustainable innovation and knowledge-driven production, processing and value addition in the sector.

However, he pointed out that the manifestation of the various economic challenges should be a wake up call to all Nigerians instead of a recipe for complacency and unjustifiable blame-game.

Meanwhile, according to him, Nigerians enjoyed relative prosperity upon the discovery of oil but few Nigerians in various positions and levels of governance squandered the proceeds from it by embarking on poorly thought-out grandiose projects, grand scale corruption and inefficient management.

He said: “To restore Nigeria’s glory and dignity we need to roll up our sleeves and embark on sustainable innovation and serious knowledge-driven Agricultural production,processing including invaluable value addition.

“To start with we should aim at adequately feeding our huge population of over 200 million still counting as a short-term milestone.

“This is not very easy for several reasons, though, but definitely doable with focus and determination.

“Quick wins or short-term deliverables: The Government should encourage the private sector to drive Nigeria’s Agriculture by strictly providing the enabling environment for sustainable agribusiness.

“The government must work to provide sufficient energy and security for Agricultural production, sufficient storage to minimize post-harvest loss, processing for sustainable value addition, good transportation for efficient distribution of goods and services, an efficient commodity exchange as well as closely monitored National consumption.

“All stakeholders in the agriculture space should be trained to recognize that Agricultural productivity is the only option for collaboration and partnership because the vital interest is National prosperity above all else.

“The implementation of the National Agricultural policy should be seen as a collective responsibility for the National government as well as all the subnational governments.

“Every region should concentrate on fully addressing the staple commodities in its immediate geographical area.

“There should be a collective effort to stem insecurity by all Nigerians; Every Nigerian should be held accountable for their actions both in government and the private sector by ensuring a reciprocal consequence for any malfeasance.

“On Medium and long-term deliverables, the African continent is now one market due to AfCFTA and so Nigeria should leverage on that to be the food basket of the continent using its vast cultivable, irrigable land resources as well as its other abundant resources such as oil and other minerals.

“Nigeria should judiciously deploy its oil resources to enhance investments in commodities like Cassava, Cocoa, Cotton, Poultry, Rice, Wheat, Maize, Hibiscus, Sunflower, Vegetables, Sesame, Ginger, Dairy, Hides and Skin, Cowpea as well as Peanuts and Dates for the export market in Africa in the first instance and then globally to the Middle East, Europe and the Americas.

“Nigeria should encourage continuous processing and packaging as well as distribution of all commodities of comparative advantage.

“Nigeria should give a boost to its textile and food industries; Nigeria should create Centres of Excellence for Agricultural Education.

“Nigeria should spear head the evolution of a pastoralism hub to harness its Dairy and beef industry as well as livestock sector agribusiness promoting leather and pure skin value-chain.

“Nigeria should exploit its marine resources and aquaculture; Nigeria should embark on full-scale industrialization of its agriculture through full deployment of STI and full-scale agricultural mechanization.”