The gathering of Agro Allied Key Players and Equipment Manufacturers in West Africa
Theme: “The new Agricultural Agenda for Economic Growth and Food Security”
The 2nd annual Agribusiness Tradeshow & Conference will serve as the platform to discuss the potential and viability of the agriculture business in Nigeria and the West Africa sub region. The event seeks to symbolize the opportunities in the Agribusiness, as well as synergize on technologies, techniques and human resources to take this all important sector to the level of Africa union food security initiative.
A paradigm shift in Agriculture through its commercialization has become potentially necessary owing to the fact that for far too long agriculture and farming has been practiced by farmers in Africa on a subsistence level. At this subsistence level, there has been shrinking and depleted farms, an ageing population with limited interest from the youth to engage in agriculture.
To this end, the imperativeness of exploring the potential profitability of every agriculture investment and to determine whether it makes financial sense to proceed in the short, medium and long term is now more feasible than ever before
It is in recognition of this fact that there have been comprehensive interventions to ensure sustainable growth and job creation. For example, the cassava value chain, one of the most important value chains in Nigeria, benefited from a presidential campaign for cassava and its products, including cassava chips, flour, etc.
With minimal investment in research, provision of market information, access to subsidised fertiliser, and links to international markets, cassava received a major boost in the country between 2003 and 2007. This boost has resulted in a glut on the market, obviously disappointing farmers. This demonstrates that a focus on increasing yields, without investing in processing and other aspects of the value chain will lead to short-term gains, but not long-term sustainable growth and development for actors across the chain.
Africa holds about 60% of global uncultivated land and the key to unlocking the growth of agriculture in Africa is to improve the business of the small scale farmers who have access to millions of hectares needed to boost productivity. Research has shown that Nigeria has over 80 million hectares, accounting for 23% of arable land in West Africa and Agribusiness is presently contributing heavily to the countrys GDP as well as driving employment opportunities.
Nigeria is also the leading country with greater opportunity in West Africa with increased integration, making the country viable in no small way to improve food security in the region. In line with these growth potentials in agribusiness, banks are now investing in Agriculture. As part of its mandate to boost the agricultural sector in Nigeria, the Bank of Industry has distributed over 53 Billion Naira as loans to the Agribusiness value chain in 2012 alone. Other bank and financial institutions, including the Unity Bank has such portfolio as the Agriculture Credit Guarantee Scheme. The Central Bank of Nigeria has also liberated the condition for accessing the 200Billion Naira commercial Agricultural Credit Scheme to practicing farmers and sector players. In addition the Nigerian Export – Import (NEXIM) bank has introduced a Special Fund for Cassava export and the United Bank for Africa, on its part is one of the largest financers of Agricultural projects in the country; financing activities across the value chain from the production to storage, processing, Transportation and distribution.
Presently, the Nigeria’s macroeconomic indicators are showing a decline in Gross Domestic Product due to the low development the Agricultural sub sector, even, with its huge population. Presently, Nigeria is also the largest producer of almost every major agricultural commodities in West Africa, given the significance of the Nigerian economy in West Africa – with approximately 60 percent of the population and over 50 percent of the region Gross Domestic Product (GDP) – it is important in the context of regional initiatives to understand the country’s role in regional food security (World Bank, 2006).
We are therefore, sincerely inviting all stakeholders in this sector to share and participate in this event. The conference segment will discuss a wide range of agro allied activities, cutting across Livestock, Animal, Feeds, Agro- processing, seed production, soil pollution, research and machineries.
This and many more reasons explain why the forthcoming AgricBusiness Tradeshow is apt and timely. For details on Conference Delegate registration, Exhibition Space and Event Sponsorship, please contact: +234-8053100096, +234-7034638975 and info@agricshow.com or visit event website: www.agricshow.com
