The Federal Government has expressed the determination to providing an enabling environment to enhance the competitiveness of organic agriculture and agroline commodities in Nigeria.
The Minister of Industry,Trade and Investment, Otunba Adeniyi Adebayo, who spoke during the National Organic Agriculture Business Summit on in Abuja said that the promotion of quality organic agricultural produce is a better approach for health being mainstreamed across the relevant MDA’s in the country.
Adebayo, who was represented by Director, Commodity and Export, Suileman Adebayo, spoke on the theme of the summit: “Organic quality: guarantee for National development.
“The ministry is fully committed to providing the enabling business environment that will enhance the competitiveness of organic agroline commodities locally and globally.”
This was even as the Executive Director, Nigeria Export Promotion Council (NEPC), Olusegun Awolowo, in his keynote address, said that government and other stakeholders in the sector were collaborating to ensure that the country’s “local organic products go solely organic.
“It is a fact that the organic agriculture sector in Nigeria is evolving and dynamic, but still one of the least developed in Africa,” the NEPC boss said.
He said that the scenario had to be changed in order to increase and expand Nigeria’s agricultural sector, a viable non-oil sector that will boost economic diversification.
Awolowo said that NEPC had recently engaged stakeholders to promote the certification of Nigeria products for organic produce with a view to increasing the value and volume of exports and reduce the rate of rejection of agricultural exports.
Source: NAN.
