The Southwest Commodity Forum, aimed at allying and unifying all farmers' associations of the region for a Value Chain Development, designed to discuss the prevailing dwindling agriculture practice in the region, with a focus on food security and the necessary policy actions to save the ugly situation was held at the College of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food Technology (CAFFTECH), Ijeda-Ijesa, Oriade local government Osun State on Tuesday, 16th January, 2024 with representatives from various farmers Associations cutting across all states of the Southwest, Nigeria and Federal Ministry of Agriculture representative.
The meeting an initiative of Otunba (Dr) Gabriel Emiola Ogunsanya a.k.a. FegAgro, a former Chairman of All Farmers Association of Nigeria (AFAN), was directed by Ogun State Chairman, Farmers Association of Nigeria, Prince Olusegun Dasaolu who welcomed and thanked everyone for showing up for the meeting. He also appreciated everyone and explained the purpose of the meeting as highlighted in the six-point agenda; first, to discuss data generation along value chain, second, to appoint state coordinators to facilitate the achievement of the purposes for setting it up the forum, third, to reactivate a cooperative structure, fourth, to discuss the involvement of the Southwest region in dry session farming, fifth, to set a date for All Southwest Farmers Summit and lastly, to discuss on sourcing for finance of the forum.
In a speech delivered by Engr. Atoyebi Sunday Olugbenga Osun State coordinator, Federal Ministry Of Agriculture And Food Security, he remarked that the Southwest is richly blessed with abundant land, water resources, cheap labor and great sunshine. But the paradox is that south western state is finding it difficult to feed itself, to him this is a major embarrassment as he decried the unabated increase in food commodity prices, shortage of certain food products, and adverse food scarcity/insecurity in the region.
Discussants at the meeting decried the current state of Nigeria agriculture and agribusiness sector and identified the anomaly in Federal Government Anchor Borrower Program where a certain region of the country seems to be a major beneficiary at the detriment of others, particularly the Southwest.
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The highpoints of the meeting were adoption of all six points discussed according to the agenda of the meeting where state coordinators were selected and All Southwest Farmers Summit was slated to hold by first week of March, 2024.
Associations that sent representatives to the inaugural meeting included Cassava Production Processors Marketers Association, Plantain Growers Association, Palms Farmers and Investors Association, Cassava Growers Association, Association of Aquaculture Farmers and Agro-Processors of Nigeria, Cocoa Association of Nigeria to mention just a few.
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Oladimeji Lasore +2347035105413 [email protected]
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