BY NAOMI UZOR
Nigerian Association of Chamber of Commerce, Industry, Mines and Agriculture (NACCIMA), has proposed the establishment of agricultural marketing boards that is private sector-driven.

The Director General of NACCIMA, Mr. John Isemede, told Vanguard exclusively that unlike the former marketing boards that were fully funded by government but was abolished by the military regime, the proposed new board modus operandi should be worked out in a manner that will be sustained by the private sector.

He noted that the reintroduction of the marketing board, which was submitted as part of the measures to fortify the agricultural sector, was part of the proposals submitted by the Governor of Central Bank of Nigeria, Mallam Sanusi Lamido Sanusi.

“As an Expert in Agribusiness, I want to say here that an Agricultural Marketing Board is a statutory body for a nation which acts as a compulsory marketing agent, performing or controlling one or more of the functions of marketing on behalf of producers and farmers of specific agricultural commodities.

Boards may be established and operated under either provincial or federal government’s legislation, depending on whether the products they market or regulate are the local market or to the export market. Some boards are subject to the jurisdiction of both levels of governments in the developed World.

There are currently more than 80 agricultural marketing boards in Canada. Marketing boards operate in every province and regulate a wide variety of agricultural products” he said

He noted that In Nigeria, the abrogation of the commodity boards in 1986 definitely remains the off – shoot of the private sectors thinking that trading especially in non-oil export has to be organized. This is formed by the fact that most export from the country and the sub region are agricultural produce in nature led by cocoa, beans, palm-kernel, groundnuts, runner, ginger, grains among other new entrants – melon, sorghum, Soya beans.

“Since their inception, Nigerian marketing boards have been used to serve various interests and purposes, hardly any of which have benefited the farmers.  Nigerian middlemen in our Cities found them a ready-made instrument for taxing farmers, enriching themselves and financing their business activities in Europe and Africa.”