By Ayobami Olasehinde
The Head of Administration, Association of Food and Agro Process (AFAP), Mr. Idongesit Samuel Unam has said that insecurity, inadequate implementation of interventions by the federal government, moribund infrastructures, high taxes and other levies are responsible for spike in food prices.
Mr. Unam disclosed this in an exclusive interview with Nigerian NewsDirect recently in Lagos.
While speaking with Nigerian NewsDirect, he said security challenges have been a bridge hampering some of the members of AFAP to get their goods and products across the country, other causes include multiple taxation on inter-state food transportation by Federal, State, and Local Governments. Noting that with the insecurity challenges most of the cost of bringing their raw materials have escalated.
According to him, “We have three problems that are affecting us. And one of them is insecurity. Most of the farmers can’t go to farm for fear of herdsmen and other issues. Now and then, they hear that farmers are being killed. This won’t encourage them to go to farm which has caused scarcity of raw materials for food production.
“Also, the cost and utilisation of fertilizers by farmers is another issue. The quality of fertilizer distributed and the price, has affected the use of fertilizer For example, I want to produce and I need fertilizer and the cost of fertilizer is increasing every day. Won’t this affect the production cost?
“We need to be clinical in these things. I am not even talking about the North where the largest quantity of rice is produced. Farmers can’t go to farm.
“The Benue State is regarded as the food basket of the nation but security challenges are affecting farmers of this region. Certainly, there will be increase in cost of food items.
“Another challenge is the cost of packaging materials which has been on the rise. Since last year the prices have been going up every day due to persistent devaluation of our currency.
“These are some of the challenges most of these SMEs face.”
He added that for the growth of food processing business in Nigeria, there must be an adequate knowledge on how to preserve, store and package food with different packaging materials in different environment.
Bemoaning the gains of AFAP with regards to improving storage and reducing the spate of wastefulness common with farm products across the country due to spoilage, Unam said, “Most of our food products like tomatoes, pepper and the rest, suffer from post – harvest loss, so AFAP, as a body, will be coming with an innovation whereby the lifespan of the product can be elongated so that it will be available all year round and not seasonally.”
On the regular qualitative training on food and research activities of members, Samuel explained the activity of the Association, “We came up with technical acquisition skills so that problems and challenges facing members can be tackled head-on.”
“Our research further showed us that we have an advantage of producing two goods with machine.
“Now we have seasonal farm produce like tomato, members are now keying into research and training on how to preserve, produce functional foods and process this product free of additive or artificial preservatives.
“When we started the association, our President had to train people practically on simple processing method for perishable products in different locations like Abuja, Owerri, Lagos and Kano etc. We are trying to eradicate the problem faced in the previous case. The experience made us came up with a program for training Youths and women so that they can maximize their ability to process perishable raw materials.
While expressing his dismay over access to government loan and incentives, Unam told Nigerian NewsDirect that AFAP members lack access to government interventions.
He, however, charged the government to assist the SMEs to grow and thrive in Nigeria.