Nigerian Government committed to promoting organic agriculture says Minister

Minister of Industry, Trade and Investment, Otunba Adeniyi Adebayo, has reiterated the government’s commitment to providing an enabling environment to enhance the competitiveness of organic agriculture and agro line commodities.

Adebayo, represented by Director, Commodity and Export, Mr Suileman Adebayo, stated this during the National Organic Agriculture Business Summit on Tuesday in Abuja.

The summit was themed “Organic quality: guarantee for National development.

The minister said that the promotion of quality organic agricultural produce was a sure approach to better health being mainstreamed across the relevant MDA’s in Nigeria.

“The ministry is fully committed to providing the enabling business environment that will enhance the competitiveness of organic agro line commodities locally and globally,” he said.

Mr Olusegun Awolowo, Executive Director, Nigeria Export Promotion Council (NEPC), 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 Nigerian products for organic produce with a view to increasing the value and volume of exports and reducing the rate of rejection of agricultural exports.