By Fortune Eromosele, Abuja

In a bid to promote and maintain standard agricultural products, the Standard Organisation of Nigeria, SON, Tuesday, signed a Memorandum of Understanding with the Agricultural Produce Sellers Association of Nigeria, APSAN.

Speaking during the signing of the MoU in Abuja yesterday, the Director-General of the SON, Mallam Farouk Salim, described the ceremony as a pertinent one, stating that cooperation is important as Agriculture is the backbone of the economy in Nigeria.

He said with the help of an association like APSAN, the organisation will be able to maintain the standard in the market.

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“APSAN would get a lot of experience, both in management, product marketing, labeling and packaging training. We can work with both medium and large scale training in the agricultural industry to help them market their products properly but certify them in such a way that when they go to another country, with our stamp, the receiving countries would know that this product is up to standard”, he stated.

Also speaking, the National President of APSAN, Comrade Aloys Akortsaha explained that apart from making sure Nigeria stands to gain good and standard products, the association would also serve as a middleman between the federal government and the farmers.

 He said, “This MoU is going to facilitate the access to farmers and dealers and also perpetrators of sub standard products and we would investigate any wrong thing that is done wrongly against farmers and dealers that are not satisfied, we would make sure the right thing is done.”

“My message for members of APSAN and farmers, dealers, is that they should enroll themselves for training. First and foremost, you have to be trained. Already SON has given us the legal documents that we will use to train them.”

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In the same vein, North-West Chairman, APSAN, Alhaji Ibrahim Shuaibu noted that the signing will give the agency the capacity to tackle substandard products in the markets as well as bringing the sellers of these substandard products to book.

On his part, the Chairman of the APSAN task force, Mr.Vandefan James, said this epoch event will give a boost to the standardization of agricultural produce, saying “food is essential and once you start taking in substandard food, it is like eating poison.”

“Our work is to ensure that whatever farmers produce and send out there, that is what consumers are going to get. Whatever SON is against, we will also stand against that”, he stressed.

Vanguard News Nigeria