Nigeria’s agroforestry potential ‘ll generate over $2bn annually – AFAN boss

National President, All Farmers Association of Nigeria, AFAN, Arc Kabir Ibrahim, weekend, said that in order to achieve the diversification of the nation’s economy, governments at all levels should look inwards to harness the agroforestry potential, which has the potential generate over $2 billion annually and fast tract the process of industrialising the economy. Ibrahim who doubles as the President, Nigeria Agribusiness Group, NABG, and Chairman, Board of Trustees, BoT, National Agricultural Foundation of Nigeria, NAFN, said that the agroforestry system comprises an avalanche of fruit trees, timber resources and a host of land can together create an ecosystem for the enhancement of crop life as well as livestock and carbon sequestration to balance global climatic conditions and also enhance human economic activities especially among rural underprivileged as well as clearly underserved communities. According to him, this resource sector is capable of generating immense economic benefits to Nigeria if properly harnessed by creating sustainable Inclusive Businesses, IBs, thereby opening opportunities for the gainful employment of women and youth as well as smallholder farmers and Small Scale Processors, SSPs, especially in underserved communities.
He said “creating cottage industries, for instance, to off-take an array of products from our forests through sustained value addition and aggregation will create the impetus for large industrial activities around the production of timber products for social housing, fruit juices, cooking oils and scaling of food production generally as well as livestock production leading or contributing to the attainment of food security in Nigeria. On balance the potential for generating a veritable agroforestry economy of an appreciable magnitude far in excess of $2 billion dollars is easily realizable through a thorough reappraisal of the agroforestry system to include resources such as the following: Wood lands; fruit trees such as mangoes, oranges, guava, cocoa, palms including dessert palms and dates etc. too numerous to name; Conservation activities; Reforestation activities; Creating large orchards; Creating green belts to control desertification and enhance carbon sequestration and earn carbon credit; Processing timber and timber products to be used in mass social housing and industrial activities such as the manufacture of processing containers as well as several products to be deployed in sustainable economic ventures.
“The highly myriad activities sprouting from a veritable agroforestry system can lead to immense value addition that will galvanize in-country industrial growth as well as a sustainable export market. The harnessing of all these activities will bring about prosperity to the nation and succor to less privileged and underserved communities, thereby, heralding the much awaited “financial inclusion” among women and youth who constitute or will eventually constitute the largest proportion of our envisaged 400,000,000 population in 25 years.”