Oba Kabiru Shotobi with his chiefs and eminent subjects played hosts to a team from Abuja presidency last month at the Ayangbure Palace as the National Ethics and Values Compliance Office (NEVACO) paid Ikorodu an official visit to sensitize the communities and farmers in Ikorodu environment on the novel ideal they have been mandated to execute.
The team which was led by Lagos State Assistant Director of NEVACO, told Oba Shotobi and the reception group that the agency is set up for the empowerment of Nigerians through commodity exchange programme.
According to him, the Commodity Exchange Programme is to be funded by the African Development Bank (ADB) and Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN).
He said that the project will reach out to six thousand (6,000) farmers in direct commodity groups in Lagos state within th
e next quarter.
The delegation from Abuja told Oba Shotobi that he will be needed to assist the farmers to get properly identified and registered for the NEVACO commodity exchange programme through the Chiefs and Baales under his jurisdiction in Ikorodu and environ.
The Ikorodu monarch who received the guests on a courtesy visit, along with some of his chiefs and prominent indigenes of the community, appreciated the NEVACO team and promised to cooperate with them to make the commodity exchange programme a success and beneficial to the farmers and residents of his kingdom.
Among those who welcomed the team from Abuja was Chief Kaoli Olusanya, a former Commissioner for Agriculture in Lagos State, who is also a member of the Kabiyesi’s kitchen cabinet.
Asipa Kaoli Olusanya, an experienced practical farmer, told Oriwu Sun at the sidelines of the visit that NEVACO is an agency of the federal government, the presidency.
He said that though, the agency is about ethics, the main component of its mandate is the commodity exchange programe which has to do with food value chain.
According to him, the food value chain added values to agricultural produce from the farm until it gets to the consumer’s table, adding that the way the food value chain was narrated and articulated by the Lagos State assistant director of NEVACO, though very brief, shows that the agency has the grasp of all the fundamentals involved in the food value chain process.
Asipa Olusanya explained that from the start of the production, the farmer needs support in the areas of education, resources and modern technology and all these according to him, are what the agency has promised to look into and provide for the farmers.
He also said the agency equally promised to look into how the farmers evacuate the farm produce from the farm, either to the bulk purchase market or to a warehouse, using appropriate means of transportation.
Asipa Olusanya stated that policies about agriculture in the past were concentrated largely on supporting production and productivity while improving and developing infrastructure at the market was neglected, but however opined that infrastructure at the market is critical to the food value chain especially in ensuring proper preservation of farm produce.
According to him, there must be proper storage and preservation facilities in the market to ensure that farm produce that are brought to the market in a day but could not be sold up that day are properly preserved and prevented from wasting away.
The former Agriculture Commissioner, Chief Kaoli Olusanya also said the commodity exchange programme would also look into the issue of bulk buying to assure the farmers that whatever they produce they can sell, thereby preventing them from bearing unnecessary loss due to unavailability of a guaranteed market when they produce excess.
Moreso, he reminded NEVACO on the need to establish strategic sizes in some agricultural zones and locations and even in some markets, to warehouse large quantities of foods such that they can be released to the market at a regular interval to moderate price and also to give farmers assurance.
On whether the federal government through NEVACO can achieve all it set out to do, Asipa Olusanya said though the set agenda has been brilliantly articulated but however suggested a cross functional collaboration among NEVACO, Lagos State Ministry of Agriculture, Lagos State Ministry of Rural Development and the market men and women association, to ensure that the framework for implementation is efficient enough to prevent duplication of efforts.