Agric ministry to discuss modern trends for tomato cultivation with farmers.
CHIGOZIE AMADI
The Federal Ministry of Agriculture and Food Security plans to hold a one day round table on tomato cultivation with farmers to enhance productivity and reduce post-harvest losses.
The Minister of State for Agriculture and Food Security, Sen. Aliyu Sabi Abdullahi made this known I’m Abuja while exchanging views with the President, National Tomato Growers, Processors and Marketers Association of Nigeria, (NATPAN), during a courtesy visit.
Sen. Aliyu Sabi Abdullahi stated that the one day round table on tomato policy was intended to, among other things, evaluate, expound national tomato policy, make the proposal for revision and passing to the President who, according to the Minister of State, is more than willing to ensure that no Nigerian goes to bed hungry.
According to the Minister, “let us not allow the issue of tomato to be used by some to turn us to hungry people. The round table has to happen quickly because the dry season is just around the corner and what happens during the dry season doesn’t just stay with the dry season, rather it gets carried far and beyond into the lean period.”
Speaking further, he pointed out that Nigeria has about 73 million hectares of arable land, adding that “currently we are using only about 41 to 43 million of the space, which means we are having close to half of our arable land not being farmed.”
Sen. Abdullahi commended the association for the visit, pointing out that their coming was apt, timely, and productive.
In his remarks, the National President, National Tomato Growers, Processors and Marketers Association of Nigeria (NATPAN), Abdullahi Ringim, stated that the purpose of the visit was to draw the attention of the Ministry to the non-implementation of the tomato policy to address grey areas in the policy.
He pointed out that non-enforcement of the policy on tomato levy has rendered comatose the envisaged availability of the requisite fund for the development of the tomato sector, noting that one of the major causes of high cost of fresh tomato include pest infestation, increase cost of transportation and the fact that it is a seasonal crop among others.
The national president also recalled that on the 8th February, 2017, the Federal Executive Council, (FEC), at its meeting, considered and approved measures to attract investments and protect local tomato processes.
He revealed that the approved measures were the banning of importation of tomato paste, powder and concentrates, increase in the tariff on tomato concentrate, restriction on the importation of tomato concentrate to the seaport to address abuse of the ECOWAS Trade Liberalization Scheme.
Others were classification of greenhouse equipment as agricultural equipment in order to attract import duty, inclusion of tomato production, and processing in the list of industries eligible for investment incentive.
The National President, also highlighted the economic potentials of the tomato sub-sector to the Nigerian economy to include; full implementation of the tomato policy to protect local investors, granting of fertilizer blending license and subsidizing other inputs, promotion of partnership with international players for generic breading of high breed seeds amongst others.
Stakeholders expected at the one day round table include; the Tomato Growers Association, Federal Department of Agriculture, Extension Services Department, National Agricultural Development Fund, all Zonal and Coordinating Institutes as well as all Universities of Agriculture.
