NAN-AE-4
Cooperatives
By Kudirat Musa
Abuja, Oct. 18, 2017 (NAN) Mr Benson Lawal, the General Manager, Operations, Nigeria Commodity Exchange, has advised farmers to form cooperative societies to enable them to tackle post-harvest challenges facing them.
He gave the advice in an interview with News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Abuja on Wednesday.
Lawal said that the construction of facilities like warehouses by cooperative societies would enable the farmers to address their post-harvest losses.
‘‘Basically, farmers need to have cooperatives in place and they must be very strong to make them work.
“The Nigeria Commodity Exchange has come out with an idea of warehouse system.
“There is a bill before the National Assembly which has been passed by the Senate.
“The bill is waiting for concurrence at the House of Representatives and the assent of the President to become a law,’’ he added.
Lawal said: ‘‘We are gravitating to an era where commodities will be traded the way they trade at the Nigerian Stock Exchange.
“We will be trading with papers and warehouse receipts as those in Nigerian Stock Exchange trade with share certificates.
“The exchange is taking the agricultural marketing space to the next level; the exchange is promoting financial inclusion and capacitating the Nigerian farmers.
“The exchange is empowering Nigerian farmers through appropriate pricing; the exchange is promoting the standard of living of Nigerian farmers.
“We need to educate farmers, crop processors and producers on the standard and grade of their produce to meet the demand and quality of local and international consumers, and this will earn us foreign exchange,’’ he said.
Lawal said that forward contract would help to minimise post-harvest losses suffered by farmers.
News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that a forward contract is a customised contractual agreement where two private parties agree to trade a particular asset with each other at an agreed specific price and time in the future.
The general manager identified some of the post-harvest challenges as labour, transport from farms to stores, produce sorting and grading, storage facilities and problems associated with middlemen.
Lawal, however, underscored the need for the farmers to abide by the rules and regulations of the forward contract to enable them to benefit maximally from the agreement.
He also urged produce buyers and marketers to learn how to honour the terms of contract for overall good of their endeavours.
He advised farmers to strive to form cooperative societies without waiting for incentives like the provision of inputs, among others.
“Agriculture is a business and for that reason, loans should be made available to farmers with reasonable interest rates, while the value chain must be properly developed.
“There must be a synergy between farmers and input providers; and farmers need to work with Federal Ministry of Agriculture which is expected to provide extension services to enable them to engage in best agronomic practices that will improve yield.
“We have different companies around that have come up with several improved crop varieties and with time, we will begin to see huge improvement in agricultural production in our country,’’ he said. (NAN)
ROK/MOL/OOK
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Edited by Mustapha Lamidi and Dayo Komolafe