PRESS RELEASE
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
CONTACT: Marie Thompson; mkthompson@ifdc.org
DATE: April 28, 2003
West African
Partners Launch the MIR Project
The
first meeting of the Marketing Inputs Regionally (MIR) project was
held in Lome, Togo, during March 4-5, 2003.
With its key partners—the West African Economic and
Monetary Union (UEMOA) and the Economic Community of West African
States (ECOWAS)—MIR aim to create a regional inputs market.
“The
central issue we are faced with is how to make the necessary inputs
accessible to farmers at affordable prices,” said Dr. Baba Fada,
Director of Agriculture, Federal Ministry of Agriculture and Rural
Development in Nigeria. Other MIR partners include the Network of Farmer
Organizations and Agricultural Producers of West Africa (ROPPA),
Network of Chambers of Agriculture (RECAO), Conference of Ministers
of Agriculture of West and Central Africa (CMA/WCA), private
importers and dealers, and West African ministries of agriculture
and regional cooperation.
To
achieve this goal, MIR will accomplish the following:
-
Provide platforms to
create awareness and promote dialogue among stakeholders;
-
Establish policies
and regulations that will enable free movement of inputs across
borders, protect farmers and dealers from unscrupulous business
practices, and protect the environment and public health;
-
Strengthen the
private sector’s technical and business skills to market
inputs;
-
Set up a regional
input market information system to promote market transparency
and competitiveness and develop business linkages;
-
Develop an emergency
plan for cotton inputs market and introduce an integrated
cotton-based production system.
The
participants praised IFDC for linking MIR to UEMOA and ECOWAS—two
institutions that facilitate the development of regional policies.
Regional cooperation and integration in input marketing are needed
to provide for economies of scale, promote competition and ease free
movement of inputs across borders.
“Today
cotton production paid for about 85% of all fertilizers used in the
cotton-growing zones; one third of that amount is applied to food
crops, especially cereals,” said Lompo Jamano, Permanent Secretary
to the National Commission for Integration at the Ministry of
Foreign Affairs and Regional Cooperation, Government of Burkina
Faso.
The
challenge for MIR would be to develop a cereal sector that can pay
for its own input consumption. However, commercial banks are
reluctant to finance agricultural activities; therefore, it is
difficult to find funds for input supply.
The
meeting attracted 24 participants from UEMOA and ECOWAS and from
public and private sector organizations from Benin, Burkina Faso,
Ghana, Kenya, Mali, Nigeria and Togo.
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