By Marcus Ikechukwu
Moves to ensure food sustainability in the country has seen the Federal Executive Council (FEC) banning the direct sales of farm produce to foreigners.
With the latest directive by FEC, chaired by Vice President Yemi Osinbajo on Wednesday, at the State House, Abuja, foreigners will now be required to go through licensed local buying agents to access produce from farmers in the country.
Beyond the issue of hurriedly disposing farm produce for foreign exchange, it was uncovered that farmers are cheated in the purchase of their farm produce.
The disclosure was made known through the Minister of Trade and Investment, Niyi Adebayo.
According to Adebayo, who presented two memos on behalf of his ministry before FEC, explained that it had to do with the promotion of agribusiness in Nigeria through right farm gate pricing and ban on foreigners and their representatives from purchasing agricultural commodities at the farm gates.
Giving an insight into the new policy, he explained that Council approved the establishment of an appropriate mechanism that would not only protect the indigenous farmers in terms of achieving the right prices for their goods and commodities, but also ensure that they have the appropriate incentives and the needed encouragement to guarantee their continued participation in the farming business.
He said over the years, foreigners have been going to the farm gates to buy produce from the farmers at low prices, thus discouraging the farmers from continuing with their trade.
His words, “we finally got approval from FEC today for only licensed local buying agents who must be registered by the relevant national commodity associations, they are the ones who now will be able to buy goods directly from the farmers and sell to the foreigners”.
“This way, the farmers will no longer be cheated by these foreigners who just throw money at them and are able to buy their goods.”
