Stephen Ukandu, Umuahia
A university lecturer, Dr Philips Nto, of the Michael Okpara University of Agriculture Umudike, MOUAU, Abia State, has advocated strategies aimed at the implementation of value addition in agricultural products as a means of averting the annual post-harvest losses.
The Director, Agribusiness Incubation Centre (ABIC), tasked the federal and state governments to initiate and implement policies that would help farmers preserve their harvests, especially perishable crops.
Dr Nto made the call when some female farmers paid him a working visit in his office.
He lamented that farmers had in the past lost significant part of their harvests because of glut and lack of facilities to add value to their crops.
“Now that yet another farming season is set to begin, farmers should be assisted to add secondary value to their crops so that it can last a little while and not perish,” he said.
According to him, “most agricultural products are perishable, so they need to be processed to a secondary level to last longer for easy distribution.”
Dr Nto who is the immediate past Provost of Abia State College of Education, Technical, Arochukwu, noted that although primary agricultural production has enjoyed a lot of support from government, there should be a paradigm shift to value addition to enhance the shelf life of the products.
He insisted that the government should support the farmers to achieve the value addition as it would also accelerate food security.
Dr Nto said value addition to crops would also enhance all seasons’ availability of food as against the current practice where some crops disappear shortly after harvest because of their perishable nature.
Said he, “as the farming season is about to start, farmers should plant with the mindset of value addition of their crops so as to avert enormous post harvest losses as a result of glut in supply.”
Nto, a former Commissioner for Finance and Economic Planning in Abia state, commended the women for the working visit and assured them of the support of ABIC.
“ABIC was actually set up to help women and other vulnerable groups to use agriculture to improve their living conditions. We have now passed the level of subsistence agriculture. We are here to teach you modern methods, including the value addition,” the Director submitted.
Earlier, the leader of the delegation, Mrs Beatrice Kalu, explained that they were in Umudike to witness first hand the activities of ABIC after hearing so much about them.
She commended Nto for the pragmatic approach adopted by the Centre to reach rural women through its Radio Farmers programme and other enlightenment programmes.
She pledged that they would key into the value addition initiative to ensure that they will no longer waste their surplus harvest this year.
