Farmers in Ondo have called on the state government to come up with a law against indiscriminate burning of bushes in the state.
The farmers who are mainly into cash crops, including cocoa, cashew, kolanut, orange and palm produce, among others, made the call on Sunday in Akure, the state capital, while speaking with Businessday. According to them, indiscriminate bush burning is making the sate to lose revenue.
Abu Balogun, a prominent cocoa farmer at Afin, Akoko Northwest local government area of the state, while lamenting the enormous losses they suffered last year by farmers in Supare, Irun, Surulere, Afin, Oyin and Ifira as a result of bush burning, said a law was necessary to stop indiscriminate bush burning in the state.
He argued that bush burning has led to poverty because many farmers took loans for their seasonal farming and once the farms are burnt, they lose everything.
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Another farmer, Marshal Ojuolape, a large-scale cassava farmer, also attributed the high cost of cassava products like gari, fufu, Pupuru and others to the negative effects of bush burning.
Ojuolape also appealed to hunters and youths looking for animals to be mindful of the negative effect of fire.
However, an agricultural extension officer, Mukaila Ayodele, urged farmers to guard against fire incident which may consume their farmlands, noting that the farmers themselves usually attract fire into their farms by setting the surrounding of the farms on fire.
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