AS THE NIGERIA AGRICULTURAL QUARANTINE SERVICE INTERVENES IN COW PEA PRODUCTION

Even as the Covid19 Pandemic defies solutions, the National President, All Farmers Association of Nigeria (AFAN) has warned of severe dangers to Nigeria’s quest for national food security if adequate measures are not immediately adopted to address the dangers.

In a position paper, AFAN said:

The 2020 Farming season appears to engender a bountiful harvest but the flash floods all over the nation portend a serious impediment to the realization of a bumper harvest.

The several windows of support to the farming communities from the CBN and a host of other sources are germane and evidently impactful.

The FMARD Ministry of Agriculture in its half-hearted and rather late efforts in 2020 flag off activities with the most recent one having taken place as late as 7th August 2020 in Owerri, Imo State has kept the tempo of encouraging the farmers to put in their best to bolster food production.

As one traverses the nation from Dankama in Katsina State to Dutse In Jigawa State , Birnin Magaji in Kano State, Osogbo in Osun State,Ogbomosho in Oyo State,Nkwere in Imo State,Calabar in Cross River State etc. it’s all green signifying a potential bountiful farming season.

The floods in June upto early August all over the nation have washed away burgeoning crops and livestock enough to make the farmers apprehensive of imminent food shortage,though!

For those of us living in the fringes of the Sahara our large ruminants are mere skeletons because animal feed is very costly and very hard to come by.

Wheat offal is going for close to N5000 per 50Kg. The poultry industry is in distress because of the scarcity and prohibitive cost of the energy component of poultry feed!

The skyrocketing prices of staples and grains such as maize selling for 18,000 per 100Kg scare the living day lights out of us. All these compounded by the COVID-19 still around us as much as when it impeded access to our farms during the complete lockdown portend a serious disaster to the food system.

We can take the following decisions to mitigate the catastrophe should it occur, God forbid:

1.The GMP( guaranteed minimum price) for produce should be
re-established.

2. The Bill for the reestablishment of the NFRA (National Food Reserve Agency) should be signed into law immediately.

3. The NADF(National Agricultural Development Fund) should be established as soon as possible.

4. A SEED FUND should be established as soon as possible.

5. A Special Adviser on FOOD SECURITY should be appointed as soon as possible.

5. The FMARD should be reappraised through a PIVA( Partner Institution Viability Assessment).

In conclusion the Nigerian farmers should be part of all decision making in matters affecting them directly.

NIGERIA AGRICULTURAL QUARANTINE SERVICE, NAQS

Meanwhile, the Director General, Nigeria Agricultural Quarantine Service, NAQS, Dr. Vincent Isgebe, has said

stakeholders must work together to address the weak link in the cowpea value chain in order to establish continuity of market access for Nigerian beans.

Dr. Isegbe stated this during a strategic engagement with the President of Cowpea Association of Nigeria, Alhaji Shitu Mohammed, recently in Abuja.

He noted that ”the pattern of boom and bust in cowpea export owes to the ingrained issue of high pesticide residue. The pesticides are largely introduced during the storage phase. The residue levels in the cowpea tend to rise above the maximum threshold set by certain customs union and this makes the product unacceptable in crucial destinations. We need to make a clean break from imprudent application of storage pesticides and consolidate a reputation for producing and delivering cowpea that satisfy relevant quality criteria.”

Dr. Isegbe said that the country losses foreign exchange and thousands of jobs when export of cowpea or any other agricultural commodity is suspended on account of a steady trend of intolerable quality defects.

He advised cowpea value chain actors to form a network of cooperatives and embrace the principle of scrupulous self-regulation. He mentioned that, as the people who benefit most when business is brisk, it behooves all value chain players to take the initiative to ensure that good agricultural practices suffuse the entire process of producing export-destined cowpea.

In his remarks, Alhaji Shitu Mohammed identified lack of awareness as the root cause of high pesticide residue at the storage endpoint. Stakeholders commonly regarded the liberal application of pesticides as a way to protect their produce from weevils and preserve the material value of their produce. They didn’t know that they were effectively demarketing the produce and setting up themselves not to make profit.

He mentioned that ”the intervening period in which cowpea export has been at a low ebb has given stakeholders a light-bulb moment. They are now ready to adapt. Everyone is eager to go organic so that stability, momentum and growth can return to the value chain.”

Alhaji Mohammed thanked Dr. Isegbe for faithfully advancing the implementation of the workplan designed to remedy the contextual gaps that occasioned the recurring disruptions of cowpea export.