Farmers to Tinubu: Increase incentives to boost food production 

Farmers have called on President Bola Ahmed Tinubu to increase the number of beneficiaries of government subsidies to boost food production.

The farmers spoke in response the President’s Sunday protest broadcast, where he promised to provide incentives to farmers.

Farmers said the President’s pledge was insufficient to drive food production, except he was ready to include millions of farmers in his proposed incentives scheme.

According to Kabir Umar Fara, president of Nigeria Agro Input Dealers Association (NAIDA), “The government should do more because the intervention is not going to get to more than 200,000 farmers across the 36 states, including the Federal Capital Territory (FCT). So, the impact will be low, but if they do above 1 million farmers, there will be multiplier effect because some of the inputs will still go back to the market as some farmers will sell off and others not captured can enjoy indirect subsidies.”

He further called on President Tinubu to engage stakeholders and associations to fully understand the challenges of farmers and find ways to support them.

“During the wet season farming, about 200,000 wheat farmers were assisted, and another 100,000 for the dry season. Again, the wet season is starting and there is an intervention to support about 200,000 smallholder farmers. Ordinarily, if you want to support agriculture, that intervention that farmers will contribute 25 percent while the government subsidises 75 percent should reach a larger number of farmers,” he noted.

“How can a bag of NPK be sold for N45,000. How many farmers can afford that? But if the Presidential Agricultural Initiative done during the Buhari regime can be reactivated and something can be done to make sure that farmers get the inputs at affordable prices, that will be fine.”

Kabiru Ibrahim, president of the All Farmers Association of Nigeria.(AFAN), stated that the Federal Government does not have the resources to reach every smallholder farmer but should create the enabling environment for the farmers and the subnational administrations to perform optimally.

Ibrahim urged that the whole process of sustainable subsidy in Nigeria be transparent and far-reaching for seamless attainment of food security.

Noel Keyen, president, Organic Fertilizer Producers and Suppliers Association of Nigeria (OFPSAN),  expressed sadness that even with the declaration of emergency in agriculture earlier this year by President Tinubu, the programme was not funded, alleging that the declaration was just paper/ media hype.

Keyen queried how small-holder farmers could get affordable inputs, alleging monopolistic profiteering in the fertilizer industry.

Sadiq Kassim, president, Fertilizer Producers & Suppliers Association of Nigeria (FEPSAN), said “On the issue of agricultural subsidies, the Federal Ministry of Agriculture and Food Security (FMAFS) under the National Agricultural Growth Scheme – Agro-pocket (NAGS-AP) – has implemented some subsidies on inputs,” noting that, “The implementation of the programme has been far from satisfactory in terms of timing, scale, and delivery.”