AFAN Seeks Partnership With FG For Visible Agric Policies
The All-Farmers Association of Nigeria (AFAN) has called on the Federal Government to partner the association in order to make national agricultural policies visible and impactful in Edo.
Alhaji Bako Dogwo, Chairman, AFAN, Edo Chapter, made this call in an interview on Thursday in Benin.
He said that the inputs the Federal Government had been bringing to the state did not get to its members.
Dogwo called on President Bola Ahmed Tinubu to tackle insecurity, adding that most farmers in Edo were afraid to access their farms because of the farmers-herders crisis.
He also lamented that the Federal Government agricultural policies were impacting on the actual farmers as political farmers had hijacked the agricultural sector through state government.
Dogwo stated that only an effective partnership with AFAN would make the Federal Government agricultural policies visible.
He said that the policies would be adjudged to be impactful if rural farmers benefitted.
The AFAN president called on Tinubu to pay more attention to the agriculture as the sector was the largest employer of labour in the country.
He said that about 50 percent of the population earned its income from agriculture.
“The Federal Government has done little in terms of agriculture in Nigeria; the input the president has been bringing does not get to us.
“But I would also say that the Federal Government has also tried in terms of inputs distribution, but it does not get to the real farmers.
“It is only some years ago that we had a minister of agriculture in the person of Dr Adesina Akinwunmi who knew a lot about farming.
“Akinwunmi had passion for farming and for farmers because it was during his period that fertiliser got to farmers in the rural areas and were not diverted.
“We are expecting that his kind of programme will be reintroduced and sustained.
“Now I expect the Tinubu-led government to be more proactive because now, I understand that a lot of things coming to Edo from the Federal Government do not get to the farmers.’’
According to him, when the farmers complain, the commissioner for agriculture in the state who supposed to be there for all, will tell them that those who benefit are profiled farmers.
“The profiled farmers we do not know who profiled them; we AFAN members in the state do not even know the profiled farmers.
“We only see them on television when they are being empowered, unknown to us that the items came from the Federal Government.’’
The chairman, however, commended the Federal Government for giving the farmers bags of rice seeds and other inputs, adding that the association wanted the Federal Government to deal directly with AFAN not through the state government.
“All farmers are under the umbrella of AFAN; the association covers all agricultural sector, livestock, animal husbandry, tree crops, oil palm, rice, cassava, yam, mushrooms among others.’’
He said that Edo was the only state without tractors.
According to him, farming has gone beyond using hoes and cutlasses to use tractors for mechanised farming.
“In Niger and Anambra States, over 100 tractors each were bought for farmers in the two states by their various state governments.
“We are calling on the state and Federal Government to help us with tractors; if not free, we can pay at subsidised rates,” he said.
Also speaking, Benjamin Okpere, the State Chairman of Catfish and Allied Fish Farmers Association of Nigeria (CAFFAN), said that fish farmers had yet to feel the impact of the President agricultural policies.
Okpere said that fish farmers were hopeful when they heard of a separate ministry for marine economy and hoped that there would be some respite but had not seen anything yet.
“Prices of fish feed have largely increased within the last one year and many farmers have closed down as they could no longer cope with the high cost of running their businesses.
“I still have faith in this administration, but I will be most grateful if the policy framework for agriculture is speedily implemented as the hunger in the land is biting harder by the day”.
According to him, the high cost of basic food items has reached an unbearable limit, and we hope things do not break down before government implement the good plans they have for the citizens.
Also, Mrs Grace Nwaozuzu, a poultry farmer and a beneficiary of the Federal Government Livelihood Improvement Family Enterprises, Niger Delta (LIFE-ND) project, commended the president for the intervention project which she said had lifted her family out of poverty.
Nwaozuzu, a former incubatee who was trained and empowered on poultry farming, said there were a lot of untapped potential in poultry farming in the state.
She noted that she started the business in 2022 after undergoing the training and had expanded to stocking between 350 to 450 day-old-chicks in six circles of two months each in a year.
Nwaozuzu appealed to the Federal Government to accommodate more beneficiaries so that the impact of the intervention could get to more people.
NAN/Oyenike Oyeniyi
