STAKEHOLDERS CONSULTATIVE MEETINGS ON OUTGROWERS SCHEME AND BACKWARD INTEGRATION STRATEGY

The Council organized National Stakeholders Consultative Meetings on Outgrowers Scheme and Backward Integration Strategies for meeting the raw materials requirements of existing and emerging industries in Nigeria at the Auditorium of the RMRDC Headquarters, Abuja, on July 6^th – 7^th and Manufacturer Association of Nigeria (MAN) House Ikeja, Lagos on October 19^th – 20^th, 2004.

During the meetings, several technical presentations were made with the following recommendations:

Domestic production of agro-raw materials should be import substitution-based for the industries for which Nigeria has comparative advantage.

Industries should be involved in the R & D and dissemination of information on raw materials specifications so that suppliers could meet their demands.

Efforts should be made to improve value addition in the agricultural sector by encouraging secondary and tertiary raw materials production.

An appropriate model should be worked out to assist indigenous researchers to perfect and take R & D findings to the market

Government should provide appropriate legislation to support Guarantee Minimum Price (GMP) and encourage industries to commit a certain percentage of their profit to backward integration.

There is need to harness the resource potentials of new technologies in the areas of Bee keeping and Sericulture in order to improve crop yield and alleviate rural poverty.

Controlled atmospheric storage technologies or hermitic storage should be developed by Research Institutes with private sector participation

The private sector should utilize the existing livestock and fish raw material potential in the country to encourage their production both for domestic consumption and export

A forum for interaction of stakeholders should be coordinated by  RMRDC.

Stakeholders advised the Government to review the degree to which oil resources are continuously used for domestic budgets and ensure that substantial amount of this money should be used for the development of infrastructure and amenities such as:
    -  Increased power generation
    -  Roads
    -  Water supply
    -  Capital Equipment and Structures for Research

Industries should optimize the use of indigenous crops and other under utilized plant species.

Industrial Agro Raw Materials Production Advisory Centers should be established and put in place by RMRDC in the zones to act as advisory centers, and co-ordinate interaction of stakeholders on sectoral basis to encourage production and value addition.

The Federal Government should strengthen the Nigerian Agricultural, Co-operative and Rural Development Bank (NACRDB), and reduce the interest rate from about 25% to a single digit.

Formation of Commodity Associations should be encouraged as an instrument to drive backward integration programme.