By Miriam Humbe, Abuja
The Nigerian Export Promotion Council (NEPC) has said that it was available to provide the needed awareness, technical support, capacity building and tips on how to access the international market through export.
Executive Director and Chief Executive Officer of the Council, Dr Ezra Yakusak said this on Friday when he hosted members of the Southern Kaduna Journalists Forum in his office, in Abuja.
He advised farmers to make the production of economic crops and trees their priority so as to tap from the huge potential of export to international market.
Yakusak said that cultivation of economic trees like cashew and palm trees had huge export potential.
He therefore, urged farmers to key in and reap the benefits.
Yakusak also told his guests that farmers could make more money through export and use part of the profit to buy food with so much change in the bank, with economic crops and trees, .
He said: “Farmers can pool their small farmlands into clusters covering 10 to 20 hectares of land to either cultivate cashew or palm trees to be able to access technical and input supports.
“If the farmers can come together, we will support them with improved seedlings, train them on how to plant, the spacing and provide other technical support to ensure success.
“After that, we will sensitise the farmers on how the produce will be exported to other countries to earn more money and foreign exchange for the country”.
He thanked the journalists for their partnership with NEPC aimed to create the needed awareness on how to tap from the available opportunities through the export of economic crops.
Chairman of the forum, Mr Ango Bally had earlier told the NEPC Executive Director that the visit was to congratulate him on his appointment and to also offer their support.
Bally said that members of the forum were drawn from different local government areas of Southern part of Kaduna State.
He said that the members were working in reputable media organisations in different parts of the country, comprising of the print, electronics, and online media platforms owned by government and private individuals or groups.
The chairman was concerned that although Southern Kaduna produced one of the best ginger species in the world,
middlemen from other parts of the country reaped more of the benefits at the expense of the farmers.
He said that this was through exports of the commodity to other parts of the world.
He said it was important for farmers to be enlightened on how they could make more money in the ginger value chain with focus on export.
As the Journalists Forum, he said their enlightenment would help significantly even as the forum would partner the Council to sensitise farmers on how to cultivate economic crops for export.
He said: “We will also sensitise and mobilise farmers and Nigerians to key into the lucrative export business”.
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