Invest more in agriculture, ECOWAS tells Nigeria

Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) has urged the Federal Government invest more in agricultural initiatives as part of an effort to attract and encourage the most vulnerable groups in the society, including young people and women, into the sector.


Mr. Ernest Aubee, Principal Programme Officer on Agriculture, ECOWAS, who said this recently in Abuja commended the Federal Government for its `Green Alternative’ policy, adding that improved investment in the sector would help to translate the plan into reality.

Aubee also called on the government to encourage widespread use of technology in order to the provision of good quality seeds, storage and packaging facilities as well as good transportation and marketing facilities.

“Nigeria has been a leader in agriculture in the past but it went down at some point and oil and gas took over. Nigeria needs more investment in the agriculture sector now. All that is needed is more investment to transform agricultural plans into practical reality.

“The government needs to develop the markets; a lot of production is going on but they need to address some value chain issues like storage. For some agricultural commodities like fruits and vegetables, if you do not have proper storage, their shelf life is very short so they get spoilt.

“They have to address the issue of post-harvest losses to reduce that so that farmers can get benefits from their hard-work and if that is done, it can even bring down the cost of food,’’ he said.

The programme officer also commended the government for its efforts toward ensuring self-sufficiency in rice production in the country.



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