Robinson Imade, an oil palm farmer has appealed to the Federal Government to remove tax on farm implements to ensure the attainment of food security in the country.
Imade who appealed during an interview with BusinessDay recently in Benin City also urged governments at all levels to give tax holiday as well as assisting farmers with fertilizers at subsidize rates.
He said such incentives will not only encourage more people to embrace agriculture but to boost local production.
According to him, federal and state governments should make it as part of its agricultural policy to give tax holidays to assist farmers, remove tax duties from farm implement and tools.
“Governments should continue assisting farmers by allowing them to have access to farm machinery as provided by Agricultural Development Programmes (ADP) and FADAMA,” he said.
“Before now, Federal Government used to give 100 percent free to palm oil farmer seedlings bought but today the reverse is the case. Such incentives farmers used to enjoy are no longer there,” he further said.
“The tax I pay on my farm despite its small size it is more than what my counterparts in Ghana will pay in a farm that is more than 10 times the size of mine. To encourage farmers, cottage industries or small scale industries governments should give incentives to farmers”, he advised.
Imade, who is also a Benin based legal practitioner, called for the massive establishment of irrigation systems across the country to boost all-year-round farming activities.
“Let us have a system for instance, where we can grow crops like maize, rice, and other arable crops all-year-round. It is happening always in the North because they have massive irrigation systems put in places where there is no water but they have water for their farms all-year-round” he stated.
He, however, noted that if Nigeria is serious, focus and prioritize agriculture, recession will no longer be part of the nation’s economic challenge.
He also urged governments to channel its economic diversification to the exploration of the abundant solid mineral resources in the county instead of depending solely on crude oil.
While lamenting the poor investment in the palm oil sector by government, he noted that Nigeria that used to be the highest producer of palm oil in the world is now in the fifth position.
Imade who quoted the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) report noted that in the early 1960s, said Nigeria was the world’s largest oil palm producer with global market share of 43 percent, but today, it is the 5th largest producer with less than 2 percent of total global market production of 74.08 million metric tons.
He also noted that the report put Nigeria with a population of 197 million people as the largest consumer of oil palm in Africa of approximately 3 million metric tons of fats and oils in 2018.
He said oil palm accounted for 44.7 percent or 1.34 million metric tons while production at the same period stood at 1.02 million metric tons resulting to supply shortfall of 0.32 million metric tons, excluding the possible impact of palm oil exports.
IDRIS UMAR MOMOH, BENIN
