2023 Wet Season Farming – Farmers Promise Huge Food production

The All Farmers Association of Nigeria (AFAN) said it has put in place adequate plans to produce massive food to feed 200 million Nigerians in 2023 wet season farming.

The president of AFAN, Rafiu Rabiu Mudi, said farmers are increasing efforts to produce sufficient food to feed Nigerians.

“We are always increasing our efforts and I believe that what we are going to produce will be much higher than what we have produced in the past. 

“This time we are thinking of putting in more production, putting in more resources, because we don’t have any other business than that of agriculture. So, I believe that we are going to have a very good harvest this year at the end of this season.”

Expressing displeasure towards multiple taxes paid by farmers from the farm till the products get to the market, leading to huge reduction of profits on the part of farmers, he said multiple taxation on farmers in Nigeria is a worrisome and terrible situation that calls for immediate government intervention.

“When you take tomatoes from Kano to Lagos, the price of the tomatoes from Kano before they get to Lagos is two thousand naira, and the tax that we will pay would be about four thousand naira tax. By the time the tomatoes get to Lagos, they would have become 6 or 7 or 10 thousand naira because of the taxes paid. So, the multiple taxation is really worrisome. We lose a lot of money in that regard,” he said.

He also called for a comprehensive database of Nigerian farmers in order to achieve equal access to facilities, opportunities and grants.

He advised that AFAN should be funded and put in charge of the compilation, noting that the association is the apex body of all commodity associations of all farmers groups and they have their representatives from the local, state to the federal level, since, they are the farmers and they are the ones that know their counterparts.

“Taking data of Nigerian farmers itself costs lots of money, but we are trying. Only when we get more support to do the data from us, from the government and so on. We’ll do it just like the national census and we will get it right.

“Even right now we have the online system that we have given all our executives from the national level, for farmers to fill it. When it’s ready, we will come and filter the data. We have started, we have done a lot and we are doing it and still at it.” He added.

While commending the previous administration, he said it was able to outshone the administration before it by producing  85 % to 90% of total demand, and not total consumption.

According to him, the rice production in Nigeria was only 25% of total consumption, but the previous government was able to produce more, which he described as a great achievement.

He also disclosed that for wheat production, the country was producing less than 2% of her local demand for wheat.

Now, Nigeria is producing up to about 12%. Meanwhile, he advised Nigerians to believe in their growth, as it is a gradual process.

‘’ Nigerians are eager to develop in one day, which is not possible. Growth is a process, we started from one level to reach another level.”

“Like other countries such as China or India, they did not achieve their food security in one day. It has to pass through what we call a process. And because we are battling with so many things that disturbs our production like mechanization which is very poor; our irrigation sector is very small and then the extension services have problems. We don’t have enough extension services staff. Those are the things we have to address in the issue in order to attain a greater level within a shorter period.”

Speaking on the Presidential Fertilizer Initiative (PFI) of the Buhari’s administration, he maintained that it was not a success at all, stating that the president himself cancelled the initiative before the end of his tenure.

His words: “I met the fertilizer to be 5500 in the market, then, fertilizer went up from 28 to 30 thousand. The fertilizer initiative was in the hands of those who are not qualified enough for the agric sector, and that led to the failure of the initiative. If a well read and professional farmer had been appointed to handle the project, things would have been different.”  

Lucy /agro Nigeria