NAQS, Cowpea Association strategise to improve export

By Ezurike Ugochukwu

Owing to certain inadequacies that surround the quality of cowpea produced in the country which has continued to reduce its export value, the Director General, Nigeria Agricultural Quarantine Service(NAQS), has called on stakholders to work towards surmounting such obstacles.

Speaking at a strategic engagement with the President of Cowpea Association of Nigeria, Alhaji Shitu Mohammed, recently in Abuja, the NAQS DG, Dr Vincent Isegbe said the increase and decreases in the bean value chain is attributed to farmers failure to adapt to global quality criteria on the application of pesticide.

Isegbe said; “The pattern of boom and bust in cowpea export owes to the ingrained issue of high pesticide residue. The pesticides are largely introduced during the storage phase. The residue levels in the cowpea tend to rise above the maximum threshold set by certain customs union and this makes the product unacceptable in crucial destinations.

Isegbe

“We need to make a clean break from unwise application of storage pesticides and consolidate a reputation for producing and delivering cowpea that satisfy relevant quality criteria.”

He said quality defects have cost the country intolerable loss in foreign exchange and thousands of jobs when export of cowpea or any other agricultural commodity is suspended or outrightly rejected.

In a release signed by the Head Media, Communications and Strategies of NAQS Dr. Gozie Nwodo, Isegbe advised cowpea value chain actors to form cooperatives through which they would adapt to careful and stringent measures to regulate their activities.

He further stated that as the people who benefit most when business is good and lucrative,
it behooves on all value chain players to take the initiative to ensure that good agricultural practices become the hallmark of their business to attract export for cowpea.

Shitu Mohammed in his remarks identified lack of awareness as the root cause of high pesticide residue found at the storage endpoint.

Application of pesticides

He stated that stakeholders commonly regarded the liberal application of pesticides as a way to protect their produce from weevils and preserve the material value of their produce, not knowing they were effectively de-marketing the produce and reducing their profit margin.

Mohammed however said, ”the intervening period in which cowpea export has been at  a low ebb has given stakeholders a light-bulb moment(sudden realization). They are now ready to adapt. Everyone is eager to go organic so that stability, momentum and growth can return to the value chain.”

He thanked Dr. Isegbe for faithfully advancing the implementation of the workplan designed to remedy the contextual gaps that occasioned the recurring disruptions of cowpea export as an agency mandated to facilitate international trade for Nigerian agricultural commodities.