Sugar institute targets 2m sugarcane seedlings to boost production
The Executive Secretary , National Sugar Development Council, Kamar Bakrin has disclosed that the Institute would produce two million sugarcane seedlings to boost sugar production in the country, when fully functional.
Mr Bakrin made this disclosure at a press briefing with journalists in Abuja.
He said, the revitalisation of the Nigerian Sugar Institute, located in Ilorin, Kwara State has since started to achieve production of two million seedlings of sugarcane as well as train about 1,500 sugar industry players.
He therefore reeled out that, ” the council brought in two new sugar investors who control about 20,000 hectares of land under his leadership through the implementation of the Nigerian Sugar Masterplan (NSMP)”.
In his words, “You know that’s one of the major problems in Nigeria… if you don’t have proper incentive alignment, people will do whatever they want.”
He added that, the council had redesigned the Backward Integration Performance Incentive Framework to ensure proper alignment between the objectives of the NSMP and the activities of the operators.
Barkin disclosed that the council also identified three strategies that would help grow the sugar sector through its Nigerian Sugar Master Plan.
He said it sets clear performance target for the industry adding that the NSMP is built on key policy pillars.
According to him, the pillars are the backward integration, fiscal incentives , project intervention and performance management .
“The critical thing for us is to accelerate the attainment of the goals of the NSMP through strategic interventions. And we recognise three objectives: One is to increase the output of sugar locally to match domestic demand; to become a globally competitive player. We also want to become a globally competitive producer of sugar as a country and make imports a lot less attractive.
“And the third is to maximise the output of sugar because this sector also produces ethanol and power and animal feeds. We are seeking to maximise the industry’s output, and increase the amount of land available for the programme,” he said.
Source Link: https://www.vanguardngr.com/2024/02/sugar-institute-targets-2m-sugarcane-seedlings-to-boost-production/
