Unacceptable

Quoting the Food and Agricultural Organisation, FAO, Ngozi Ibe, the Regional Coordinator, South-South Office of NEPC says whereas 14 percent of food produced globally was lost after harvest, Nigeria’s, as indeed the countries in Sub-Saharan Africa’s, reach up to 50 per cent for perishable crops such as fruits and vegetables, and between 20 and 30 percent for grains across the region.

Another participant at the forum, Ofon Udofia, Executive Secretary of the Institute of Export Operations and Management Nigeria Limited, said about 30 percent of Nigeria’s agro exports are rejected abroad. He named sesame seed as recording the highest rejection rate among exported produce.

No doubt, policy makers across the board have long worried about the phenomenon even if, as it does appear, the efforts to stem the tide have fallen miserably short. While the factors cut through different layers of the production value chain, it isn’t exactly that the issues underlying them are unknown, not to talk of them being anywhere near rocket science.

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According to Ibe: ‘’Poor handling, inadequate preservation and substandard storage facilities contribute to high post-harvest losses”.  Of course, the issue of poor transportation infrastructure and the generally appalling state of rural infrastructure is only too familiar. One other area in which our exporters come miserably short is in their limited knowledge of export requirements.

The European Union in particular has long expressed deep concerns with the pesticide levels in our grain exports as indeed other compliance requirements, including but not limited to moisture content in exported agro produce. Notably too is the World Trade Organisation (WTO), with their focus on sanitary and phytosanitary measures.

At the moment, some estimates put the losses from the lapses as exceeding $10 billion annually.

It’s high time the issues were taken seriously, given what is at stake. If we may borrow Ibe’s words: “Export competitiveness is not only about producing more; it is about producing better and handling more effectively”.

Of course, governments - at all levels – carry the greater burden of ensuring that our rural infrastructures, particularly roads, are upgraded to save the rural economy the needless wastages. Also, the idea of the marketing boards, which the Tinubu administration actually promised, is now long overdue to save our farmers of the perennial headache of throwing their excess produce into the bin.

Nigerians may wish to recall the role of the marketing boards of yore under which farm produce in particular were graded and their standards established before being packaged for final inspection by the Federal Produce Inspection Service, for export. This is in addition to guaranteeing farmers equitable pricing. It is time for the Federal Government to actualise the plan.

State governments in particular will do well to build silos in strategic places to assist farmers and to upscale their extension services to encourage the adoption of practices that reduce losses and improve export readiness. As for the trade groups under the various chambers of commerce and industries, this seems the best time to demonstrate their relevance through technical workshops for their members to build their capacities, knowing that the global arena will never lower their standards for the Nigerian exporter.