Nigeria’s agro sector can be better enhanced with improved Agricultural Input Packages (AIPs), experts have said.
Speaking at a two-day workshop in Lagos, a cross-section of experts shared useful suggestions on how to facilitate the growth and sustainability of the vegetable sector.
Justifying the need for the workshop, Mr Mohammed Salasi, Programme Director, Horti Nigeria, said the vegetable sector was under utilised with a deficit supply gap of about 13 million metric tonnes into the country.
According to Salasi, there are lots of interventions in other crops but very few on vegetables.
He said, “Horti Nigeria is a Dutch-funded vegetable programme funded by the Embassy of the Netherlands in Nigeria. It is a four-year programme to support and facilitate the development of a sustainable and inclusive vegetable sector in Nigeria. It is part of the contributions of the people of the Netherlands and also to support the Nigerian government.”
According to Idris, the four-year programme, which targets smallholder farmers, started in 2021 and will end in 2025.
Idris added, “The project also aims to introduce innovation and technology among young people, especially greenhouses in Oyo and Ogun States, largely targeting the large market in Lagos.
“There is a background to this. Nigeria has a deficit supply gap of about 13 million metric tonnes of vegetables in the country. Every year, we import tomatoes, and other vegetable crops to the tune of 13 million metric tonnes. The importation is draining Nigeria’s scarce forex” to import especially tomato paste into the country,” he remarked.
“We are structured in four components: increasing production and productivity of the smallholder farmers, basically to increase their yield and introduce them to technology that is friendly to the environment. We are also introducing innovations in Oyo and Ogun States. We are also facilitating increasing access to finance because if we are introducing this technology, chances are that the small and medium enterprises and also the smallholder farmers will require funding.”
He said that they all agreed that this was the right technology and would be able to have it on a platform that was easily accessible by all stakeholders across the region.
Speaking earlier, Mr Kido Kouassi, the Deputy Chief of party – Implementation, Feed the Future EnGRAIS project said the workshop was geared toward democratisation of agro knowledge and extension services across local farmers.
He said that the workshop was about ensuring that information on agricultural inputs which are seeds, fertilisers and good practices was accessible to the farmers through the e-platform, an online website called FeseRWAM.
Kouassi said that the stakeholders chose vegetables because currently on the platform for Nigeria, there was no information about vegetables.
“We have information about a lot of food crops. Vegetables have potential to increase the quality of the food being consumed.
“They also have a high potential to take the farmer out of poverty and provide him with more income.
“So for this reason, it is important that such a platform that facilitates access to the information that increases farmers’ productivity has information on vegetables.
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“This platform tends to democratise access to information so that the extension agent can have access to the right information to pass to the farmer.
“The agro dealer will also have access to that information that normally would have been at the research centre, which he doesn’t have access to,” he said.
Professor Christogonus Dawodu of the National Agriculture Extension and Research Liaison Services, Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria, said the agricultural sector faced formidable challenges ranging from inadequate access to quality seeds and fertilizer.
He noted that there was a need for improved agricultural practices in the country.
According to him, these challenges, if not adequately addressed, have the potential to hinder the nation’s productivity, food security, and overall economic development.
“We applaud the initiatives undertaken by IFDC through the EnGRAIS project and Horti Nigeria. The workshop addresses key issues in the agricultural landscape and provides innovative solutions that can transform the lives of farmers.
“The collaboration between EnGRAIS and Horti Nigeria is representative of the visionary approach to expanding the reach and impact of agricultural interventions. By developing AIPs specifically tailored for vegetable crops and disseminating them through the FeseRWAM platform, we are taking a significant step to empower farmers with knowledge and resources that can enhance their agricultural practices and crop yields,” he said.
Also, Prof. Garba Sharubutu, Executive Secretary, Agricultural Research Council of Nigeria, represented by Dr Muhammad Atanda, the Director, National Horticultural Research Institute said the workshop was coming at the right time and necessary as it related especially to vegetables.
Sharubutu also said that vegetables had a great potential contributing to food security and alleviating poverty.
“When you plant vegetables, you can start harvesting within three months, there is no other crop with such potential.
“The workshop is very timely and the development of input packages for vegetables will go a long way to enhance the performance of the sector,” Sharubutu said.
On his part, Mr Abdullahi Abubakar, Federal Ministry Agriculture-Horticulture unit, represented by Mrs Omotosho Agbani, said the workshop was in line with the government’s policies on food security.
Abubakar pointed out that the programme was apt and in tandem with the policy of the present administration geared toward achieving food and national security.
Echoing similar sentiments, Dr. Muslihah Badmus, Head of Farming Systems Programme at the National Horticultural Research Institute (NIHORT), Ibadan, described the workshop as timely.
While emphasising that the project deals on the mandate crops under NIHORT, she added that the use of input is a critical thing in any agric production because it determines yields.
“One of the areas HortiNigeria is trying to cover is post-harvest and technology because these vegetables are highly perishable unlike other stapled crops, most. Although we produce so much, most of them get wasted after harvest, during transportation.
“Some particular seed varieties are actually tough, they don’t get rotten with time because they have a long shelf life and if you do your combination in the right manner it can also help to strengthen the shelf life of these commodities.
“The importation is just to be able to meet the gap in demand and supply so if we are not losing so much due to wastages, the gap to be met will be limited and then the value addition in terms of making these vegetables into paste and dry forms can actually help to reduce wastages, importation that we are currently doing and enhance sustainability and of course, overall food nutrition that the whole agenda is all about. Push the food security agenda upward.”