Right agricultural policies, capable of attracting foreign investors – Group.
Dr.Olugbenga Adeoluwa, the Co-ordinator, Ecological Organic Agriculture Initiative NIgeria, says having in place ,right and appropriate agricultural policies will attract foreign investors into the sector.
Adeoluwa, who is also the Vice President of the Association of Organic Agriculture Practitioners of NIgeria (NOAN), said this in Abuja at the inauguration of the 2022 Annual General meeting of NOAN, stressing that farmers needed good and strategic policies to help build their business effectively.
“NIgeria has a lot of potentials and opportunities in forest and wild life reserves that can easily put NIgeria on the map when it comes to bee- keeping but we need the right policy to ensure that these areas of land are for Organic production.
“The issue of quality control is also very important,but there is no one checking influx of some Organic products into the market, if the policy is approved, this will attract investors,” he said.
Prof. Victor Olowe, President, Association of Organic Agriculture Practitioners of NIgeria, in his address of welcome, said that the outbreak of the COVID-19 virus and several restrictions that came with it had exposed the vulnerability of our food systems globally.
He, therefore, called for more visible ways to urgently address the challenges to make our food systems more sustainable and resilient.
“It’s not expensive as most people think,it can be labour intensive but you can build the fertility of the soil over time, you get bountiful yields because the soil is good.
Meanwhile, this will also go a long way to feed us and still carter for our exports, the markets are there , because people are more comfortable knowing the quality of food they are going to eat.
The News Agency of Nigeria reports that Organic Agriculture is a production system that relies mostly on non synthetic agro-inputs, devoid of chemicals,it does not rely on external inputs.
According to him, no single system can feed over 200 million in Nigeria but if there is enough sensitisations going on about Organic production we can have more people going into Organic Agriculture
“Organic Agriculture is not not traditional farming, Agriculture is a production system of it’s own with strict regulations,” he said.
Highpoints of the event were launching of the side event and exhibitions of various organically produced farm produces, and constitution review.
Out going executive members of the Association were also dissolved.