Farmers urge FG to provide security, mechanisation

Nigerian farmers on Saturday called on the Federal Government to provide security and affordable farm inputs like seeds, insecticides, herbicides, and fertilisers to boost food production.

Mr. Kabir Ibrahim, President of the All Farmers Association of Nigeria (AFAN), said in Abuja on Friday that farmers needed some level of mechanisation.

He said insecurity prevented farmers from going to the farm, adding that farmers needed a sense of security alongside other requirements to enable them to put in more work in the farms.

Kabir advised that what technology incubation centres across the country were able to produce should be boosted to facilitate indigenous technologies that could be applied in agriculture.

He said various farm tools and implements for tractors could be manufactured in the country via the technology incubation centres.

The AFAN boss stressed that instead of waiting to import the parts of a broken-down tractor, Nigeria should support and encourage citizens to participate in local manufacturing.

He said that in recent times, it has become increasingly difficult to import foods, and to help Nigeria become self-reliant in food production, the government should leverage genome-editing crops and Genetically Modified Organisms.

“We need all efforts to make food available because now, you cannot even import; every country is on its own.

“Our scientists are busy; they need to be helped; we need to patronise them; their products should be made available to farmers.

“This is the only way to get out because you cannot go and buy food from anywhere,’’ he said.

Reacting to the recently concluded four-day workshop on genome, editing communication, and advocacy strategy organised by AUDA-NEPDA/NABDA, Kabir said it was a good initiative.

He stated that the confusion people brought into new and emerging technologies should never be mentioned, adding that real farmers were not even aware of all these.

“All that farmers want to see is a good yield from the seeds that are made available to them; they will not even ask questions,’’ he said.

He stated that what was required was for the conveners of the workshop to give assurance that the methodology of what they were doing was safe for everybody.

According to him, the communication that farmers expect to hear is how to get the seed type, the cost, and the difference it will make from what they are already used to.

“For instance, if we have a farmer who gets two tonnes of maize in the field and you introduce a seed type that will give him four tonnes, he will definitely buy that and will not even care that some people are making noise; he will not even hear them.

“All he needs to do is eulogise the possibility of improving his yield and the availability and affordability of the seeds,’’ Kabir said.

He said these were all what farmers wanted, and that the real theme or thrust of the communication strategy should be safety, affordability, and the ability to move them out of poverty.