The Federal Government has taken steps to end the importation of processed tomato paste and puree into the country.
Recently the Staple Crop Processing Zone Development (SCPZ) team of the Federal Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development (FMARD) visited the 1,200 metric ton capacity Dangote Tomato processing factory in Kano State.
Leader of the FG team to Dangote factory, Dr Niyi Odunlami, said the improved status of the processing plant is intended to increase dependence on locally made products rather than dependence on imported ones.
Odunlami said “This started even in the days of high oil revenue, as the Minister of Agriculture, Dr. Akinwumi Adesina, worked towards meeting the huge, local and regional demand for processed foods, conserving foreign exchange, boosting food security, improving on nutrition for Nigerians, creating wealth for Nigerian farmers and developing rural economic space.”
While commenting on the partnership between Dangote Farms and the Ministry, he said “It is needless to begin to say the obvious on the transformation potentials of what Dangote Farms has done here today, for local farmers, for local youth and for the nation’s economy.
“We developed the SCPZ Programme to identify major agricultural production clusters, like the Kadawa-Bunkure axis and to designate and appoint a delimited zone for attracting private sector investments into modern processing of locally produced crops, livestock, fisheries and related agribusiness activities.”