By Gabriel Ewepu – Abuja

As Nigerians face serious food production challenges, the Nigeria Agribusiness Group, NABG,  Thursday, called on the Federal Government to strengthen its synergy with the private sector to tackle the raging hunger storm across the country.

Speaking on the report by United Nations Children’s Fund, UNICEF, and World Health Organisation, WHO, on Nigeria’s malnutrition ranking in the world and Africa with Vanguard, the President, NABG, Emmanuel Ijewere, stressed the need for Federal Government and the private sector to own Nigeria together in terms of food production, and not to work in silos.

Ijewere said Government should learn to work with the private sector deliberately as a policy and not as a favour.

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He said: “The first thing to be done is to believe that food is important for this country not just in words. The other one is to realize that Nigeria’s economic future does not lie in oil but in agriculture.

“If those two realities are accepted, and are seen as polices of government, the next thing they would do is to look art who are the players on the field that is where the private sector comes in.

“They would partner with the private sector who are the players; you are the players, doers, what are your problems how do are help you.

“As of now we are working in silos. The government sits down and circulates agricultural policy; the private sector waits for those policies. The one they could implement they implement and the ones they cannot they find a way round it.

“All this does not optimize the knowledge, experience and the reality of Nigerians. So the private and public sector must sit down to see Nigeria as a joint venture owned by everybody, and not by one person says this is how it should go without reference to the people who are going to implement it.

“Government does not own any land and they are not growing any food, it is the private sector that is growing and taking the risk.

“Government should learn to work with the private sector deliberately as a policy not as a favour.

“As of today, the attitude of many government ministries deals with the private sector as if doing them a favour.

“It is a question that the private and public sector are working for one goal, and if they believe in that there should be mutual respect.

“Right now we do not have, we are still working in silos. The private sector is trying, and those who are sustaining agriculture are doing that at their own poverty.”

He also maintained that farmers have a right to better life and the Nigerian government needs to understand that.

“With all these that are happening now the price of food will continue to go up because the yields have not improved the education of farmers is still very low in terms of agriculture, then population is rising, the issue if exchange rate, we huge production and the farmer has sweats produce and all go to post harvest losses.

“The farmer is incapacitated, he is in poverty, he cannot go beyond what he is producing; evacuating his produce from the farm is a challenge for him, he does not have vehicle he has to rely on other people, and as a result a large quantity gets rotten on the field before he moves it to the market.

“These are the challenges, and if government cannot sit down, it is not throwing money to agriculture, first of all understanding it, the intellectual ability is what we require here first; sit down with the people and achieve a goal”, he said.

However, the NABG boss said government should focus on working with the private sector to achieve all year round farming and food production.

“Some of the crops that would make a steady difference like maize, tomato, pepper, yam, and others, these are short term things, and within 90-120 days. The question is do we have the ability to grow them twice a year, although we have the facility and not the ability.

“We have a lot of dams and since 1977, government has been building a lot of dams, and many if those dams have to waste because they are owned by government, and government sits on them  because it is their property, and it is not been used by the private sector. The farmers do not use them. They also have a lot of equipment, and a lot of money has gone into agriculture, and where are we today?”, he queried.

He also also pointed that there are problems in food production, yet government would not  see the problems and the private sector has a major role to play to tackle them.

Vanguard News Nigeria