FG set to revive moribund textile mills

Committed to revive moribund textile mills and industries depending on cotton outputs for production, the federal government has sealed an agreement with Germany and Pakistan on pragmatic development of cotton and its entire value chain through the supervision and coordination of Arewa Cotton.

According to Arewa Cotton, the federal government’s Memorandum of Understanding with Germany and Pakistan on cotton development was signed to embrace broadly, cotton farming, production, processing and its entire value chain development in order to explore the entire investment opportunities inherent in cotton.

Speaking at a workshop tagged: ‘Cotton Production and Cotton Value Chain Development in the Southwest’ organised for cotton farmers in the Southwest ahead of 2014 Cotton farming season, Adebayo Olayemi, Southwest manager, Arewa Cotton disclosed that FG has partnered international communities in order to fully explore the potentials that abound in cotton farming and industry.

Olayemi said having discovered that a whooping sum of foreign exchange are spent annually on importation of textiles and cotton materials into the country, the federal government swung into action through a tripartite collaboration with international communities – Germany and Pakistan as well as Arewa Cotton, to act as the intermediary between farmers and the government.

While lamenting inadequate cotton production in the country and losses recorded as a result of contamination by foreign matter which reduces monetary value of Nigerian cotton among its peers, he noted that the intervention provided by Federal Government on cotton under its Agricultural Transformation Agenda as supervised by Arewa Cotton would provide effective solutions.

“The project for the prevention of cotton contamination in West Africa has made the current Administration of Goodluck Jonathan focus on the findings of a Fast Track Project in cotton-producing regions to identify alarming levels of contamination in seed cotton and lint as well as potentials for substantial reduction of contamination (up to 75percent) through appropriate information and training programme. 

“This leads to collaborative efforts on the Public Private Partnership arrangement which aims to implement a comprehensive quality approach to increasing production volume and reducing contamination along entire value chain from production, ginning and trading. The general objective is to increase the income of small-holder farmers by improving their crop cultivation practices and reducing lint contamination,” he said.

Also, Akinwumni Adesina, minister of agriculture and rural development revealed that the federal government has increased its intervention through the Growth Enhancement Scheme (GES), especially to cotton farmers in order to achieve the objectives of the Agricultural Transformation Agenda which centres on the empowerment of farmers for improved farming capacity.

RAZAQ AYINLA