By Noah Ocheni, Lokoja
The Kogi State Government has been called upon to engage Public Private Partnership (PPP) approach to establish fruit processing industries to reduce Post harvest loss in the state.
The Small Scale Women Farmers Organization in Nigeria (SWOFON) and Kogi State Budget Committee Group (BCG) with support from ActionAid Nigeria, made the call on Friday in Lokoja during a press briefing on the Kogi State 2025 Agriculture Budget Analysis, Observations and Recommendations held at Golden Grand Royale hotels, Lokoja.
The briefing which was co- headed by comrade Mathias Okpanachi, Hajia Rukayat Ahmed and Faith Barikisu Ogaji asked the state government to expand post-harvest loss reduction interventions beyond grain storage to include fruits and vegetables to boost its agricultural economy.
“With Kogi accounting for N94.5bn of Nigeria’s annual N3.5 trillion post-harvest losses, and smallholder women farmers having access to only 19.90% processing and 19.45% storage facilities, there is a critical need for investment in cottage-level processing and storage infrastructure.”
The Group who blamed the poor performance of 2024 budget to the government’s weak policy focus on smallholder farmers who are the main food producers said this has partly contributed to ongoing food inflation in Kogi State, as reported by the National Bureau of Statistics.
“The Kogi state Agricultural Development Project (ADP), tasked with responsibility of supporting smallholder farmers through extension services, was the least performing MDA with only 38% execution.”
‘We therefore urge the government to ensure that the allocations meant to support smallholder farmers especially women are fully and timely released to support their farming activities to boost food production and promote food and nutrition security.”
The group also lamented over the non release of the three tractors allocated to SWOFON by the state government in the 2024 budget which were allegedly diverted to Ondo and Niger states respectively.
The SWOFON stressed the need for a comprehensive Agriculture Policy framework that incorporates the Continental and National priorities and also consolidates the Continuity agenda of the administration which aims to provide food sufficiency and security for citizens of the state.
Extension Services: “Beyond the need for enhanced capacity and skills of extension workers to engage farmers on emerging farming techniques as budgeted, the transfer of knowledge and skills to end users (farmers) will not be possible if funds are not allocated to support extension service provision.”
“We therefore recommend the government to urgently increase the allocation to extension services to include the provision of extension services to farmers.”
