TAK Integrated Agricultural Solutions Limited (TAK-IASL) is collaborating with Ginger Growers Association and Ginger Off-takers Association with the support of USAID-NEXTT (The Nigeria Expanded Trade and Transport project), Nigerian Export Import Bank of Nigeria (NEPC), Nigeria Investment Promotion Council (NIPC) and Kaduna State Investment Promotion Agency to organize an international investment development summit on Ginger entitled “The Development of Ginger Value Chain in Nigeria “.Read the Excerpts of an interview with Kabir Usman the MD/CEO of Tak Agro Integrated Services culled from Daily Trust.
How long have you been active in the ginger industry?
We actually went into ginger about three years ago. We entered with the hope of working along the entire value chain. We successfully cultivated ginger a couple of times and we traded on ginger, but we realized that there were so many challenges and that is what brought the idea of holding a summit.
What is the outlook of ginger business in the Nigerian economy?
Ginger is the third largest non-oil export that we have and, Nigeria is rated as one of the highest suppliers of ginger in the world behind India and China. So, we do a lot of ginger but we don’t get so much value for it generally.
Who are the stakeholders coming to this summit?
We are bringing together everybody in Nigeria. We have identified the farms ginger is grown in Kaduna State; we have identified farmers’ organizations, we have invited them to participate. We are also collaborating with ginger growers association and we have quite a number of associations. We are inviting off-takers – we have two categories of off takers; those that serve as middle men i.e. they buy ginger from farmers and make it available to those that want to export.
We are inviting representatives and practitioners, exporters i.e. those that buy ginger from Nigeria and export it; interested investors that want to participate in our ginger because we have noticed that there are people who are exporting ginger from Nigeria and they are not Nigerians. These people picked interest in ginger and they have bought pieces of land to grow ginger and export the produce out of the country. This great move will help to boost the country’s economy. Rather than discourage such investments, this summit will help us to table all issues and create a harmonious micro-system for ginger so that we can grow.
We are inviting promoters, trade promoters, government agencies, banks, financial institutions, Nigerian exports promotion companies etc and of course Kaduna State government, Kaduna State Investment Promotion Agency. We are facilitating the programe together – all the government agencies that have one thing or the other to do with ginger in Kaduna State. We are giving much attention to Kaduna State because that is the home, where ginger is grown.
How will you appraise government input into making ginger a viable economic produce?
Ginger, like I said, is a highly rated export crop for Nigeria, but government cannot do everything alone; government has done so much in the past, but if we still have problems now, it means that some of those efforts have not achieved their target. Our input is the response to government’s continuous invitation to participate in the sector. As a private player who is conversant with the Nigerian business environment and an enthusiast of agriculture, we have a special interest to see that things are done differently and we feel we can add value.
We initiated the idea to do this summit at the suggestion of USAID. We had pre-summit discussions, we had technical meetings with all the stakeholders that I have mentioned; we sat with NEPC (Nigerian Export Promotion Council) and the banks probably will do it on their own. But right now we want to see that we fill the gap and create some attention to the subjects so that we can move forward.
How do we ensure stability in our ginger ecosystem?
The quality of ginger in Nigeria is very unique and other countries have taken our seeds to see if our ginger will grow well in their climes. Even in Nigeria we used to think that it can only be grown in Southern Kaduna but now it is grown in Borno, Gombe, Niger, Nasarawa and Abuja.
However, the backbone of the economy of the planters is under threat in so many ways.
We should stimulate investment in local off-taker. We should have factories to process ginger instead of exporting raw, dried ginger. We should be able to process fresh ginger into ground ginger, ginger oil and packaged ginger. We should increase the quality and also ensure that farmers can sell on a regular and consistent basis. But right now too many incidents that can disrupt the market have affected it.
What are the strategies you think will improve ginger production?
There isn’t much local research in ginger to simplify the process for the farmer, even the ginger we are farming is still in its original form. For example other crops have an improved variety but we don’t hear that in ginger.
Culled from Daily Trust
Comments
Post a Comment
What do you think?