Agricultural entrepreneurs in north central Nigeria have asked the federal lawmakers to speed up the passage of the fertilizer control, seed council and warehouse receipt system bills ahead of the forthcoming elections.


The farmers made the call at a programme organised by the Nigeria Economic Summit Group (NESG) with theme: Regional Sensitisation for Smallholder Farmers in North-Central in collaboration with Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa (AGRA) and supported by the United States Agency for International Development (USAID).

The famers came under the auspices of Association of Small-Scale Agro Producers in Nigeria, (ASSAPIN) and the All Farmers Association of Nigeria (AFAN).

The National Programme Coordinator for the small-scale agr producers, Yarima Charles, during his address complained about the delay in the passage of the bills by the National Assembly.

He said the bills when passed into law will boost agribusiness and food security in the country.

“You cannot do farming activities in Nigeria first without having access to improved seeds and without fertilizers. These two things are critical even though land is also one of the critical aspects of it.

“By the time you have improved seeds and access to fertiliser so that you would be able to engage in appropriate farming techniques and you embark on effective farm management it would increase yield to farmers per hectare, and when the yield increases, the farmers will have surplus in productivity and sell, also to take care of other issues concerning them and their families.

“When these three bills are passed into law, it has multi-sectoral impact, it would lead to improved quality of manpower in the agricultural sector, because it would lead to production of farm equipment, increased revenue generation instead of depending on borrowing and importation of these commodities that are not good for consumption.

“Part of what we are doing today is to equip the farmers with vital information to speak on the issues of the Fertilizer Control Bill, Seed Bill and many other bills so that after we have elected them into power and after May 2019, we will follow it up again to see what they can do to ensure that these bills are passed into law”, said Charles.

He asked NASS to speed up the passage of the bill before the inauguration of the ninth national assembly in June 2019.

https://www.makeitglobal.biz/agroprenurs-urge-nass-hasten-passage-fertilizer-bills-others/