With the re-election of President Muhammadu Buhari for another four years, farmers are yearning for mechanisation, irrigation and single digit interest loans in driving growth in the sector and attaining food security.
“We are expecting much benefit from the next level agenda of the Federal Government. We want irrigation and mechanisation facilities to boost production,” Ibrahim Kabiru, national president, All Farmers Association of Nigeria (AFAN) said.
“We cannot grow our agriculture using hoes and cutlasses anymore. Mechanisation and irrigation are vital if we will attain food sufficiency.
“We also need cheap credit. Though the government is trying with the ABP, we want it extended to all crops and livestock as well,” Kabiru said.
Nigeria’s agricultural sector is important in changing the fortunes of the country’s economy with attendant exponential gains by way of earnings, employment, food provision and other spin-offs.
In the last four years, the Buhari administration says it has devoted a lot of energy at deepening agriculture.
Such initiative as the Anchor Borrowers’ Programme (ABP) has been designed to do just that, without addressing fundamental issues of mechanisation, irrigation and credit among others.
As a result, yields have continued to remain low and progress made initially is now on a downward trajectory. This is evident in the country’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP) report.
Data from the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) GDP report shows that growth in the sector has been on the decline since first quarter 2017, with marginal growth recorded only in the fourth quarter of the same year.
The GDP report shows that growth in the sector contracted from 3.06 percent in q3 2017 to 1.91 percent in q3 2018 year on year.
“We still do not have sufficient tractors that farmers need. We do not have enough irrigation facilities to get water directly from our dams so that farmers can farm all year round,” AfricanFarmer Mogaji, chief executive officer, X-Ray Farms Consulting Limited said.
“The Buhari led government needs to focus on this area to attain food sufficiency and create jobs,” Mogaji said.
Farmers in the fishing and livestock sector have complained on neglect in the last four years by the Buhari’s administration and this has reduced their productivity and impacted their capacity to expand.
“In the last four years the entire focus of the government was for crop farmers. We expect Buhari to focus on the fishing and livestock subsector,” Oloye Rotimi Olibale, president, Catfish and Allied Fish Farmers Association (CAFFAN) said from his Ibadan farm.
“We were not entirely included in the ABP programme. We want the government to totally include all fish farmers in the anchor borrowers programme so that we can have access to cheap credit,” Olibale said.
He urged the government to address the lingering ban of Nigeria’s smoked catfish by the US and European governments and the problem that warranted the ban is totally resolved.
Also, Victor Iyama, president, Federation of Agricultural Commodities Association of Nigeria (FACAN) commended the Buhari government for the Anchor Borrowers Programme but demanded that the government provide key infrastructure to drive growth in the sector.
“The government has done well in the sector but much more still needs to be done,” Iyama said.
“The government needs to provide motorable roads, irrigation facilities and agro credit for farmers to drive growth in the sector.”
Buhari had stated that his administration will initiate new agricultural programs to drive growth in sector.
Josephine Okojie
