By Mohammed Kandi
In a bid to ensure a quality production of ginger crop in Nigeria, the Federal Government has trained at least sixty farmers and processors across ginger producing states in the Northern part of the country.
The effort, which is collaboration between the Federal Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development (FMARD) and the Federal College of Produce, Kano, venue of the training, was intended to maximise the ginger export potentials in the world market.
The Provost of the College, Mallam H. Ibrahim, who tasked the participants on the need to take advantage of the post-harvest value addition in order to earn more money on their produce both locally and internationally.
Mallam Ibrahim further stressed that “the role of produce inspection toward ensuring quality through grading is very germane in the Agricultural Transformation Agenda (ATA) of Mr. President. The gap in this area has resulted to rejection of many agricultural produce from abroad with 30% grains and 70% vegetable lost to post harvest.”
According to the provost “Despite the training of the produce inspectors by the college, their absence in the export of agricultural produce has led to returning of many produce outside the country. We all know that 30% of grains in Nigeria is lost to post harvest and 70% vegetable to the same challenge.”
Also speaking, the Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development, Dr Akinwumi Adesina, who was represented by a Director in the ministry, the inclusion of ginger crop in the ATA programme had stimulated production saying “two bags of fertilizer were given to farmers with training in the value addition for higher pricing locally and internationally.”
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