Association urges C’River to be proactive in tackling food insecurity
Mr Nathaniel Ellem, the Chairman, All Farmers Association of Nigeria (AFAN), Cross River chapter, has urged the state government to be more proactive in the campaign against food insecurity.
Ellem made the call in an interview with in Calabar on Thursday. He said that many state governments in the country were only paying lip-service to the massive food production programmes they claim to be implementing.
The AFAN chairman said that residents of the state had seen more promises than actions concerning the need to boost agriculture and food production.
“We have not really seen any reliable effort towards addressing the challenges bedeviling the agriculture sector. It has just been rhetorics.The planting season has been ongoing, farmers in the state have not received any form of assistance from the government.
“We have farmers who are willing to work hard, but our handicap is that support is not coming from the government,” he said.
Ellem urged the state government to support farmers with loans and equipment to be able to indulge in large scale cultivation.
He said that the state would face acute food crisis if nothing was done to quickly to support farmers in the state with inputs.
“We are tired of always submitting names to the government for support. Nothing happens after submitting the names,” he said.
Reacting to the issues raised by AFAN, Mr Erasmus Ekpang, the Commissioner for Information, said that the state government remained committed to boosting food production.
He said that the Gov. Bassey Otu-led government would fulfill all the promises it made to farmers in the state.
“While some of the promises have been met, all the promises made by the government will be fulfilled.He said that the state had signed the bond to purchase tractors, and that the tractors would be delivered as soon as the process was completed”.
“The farmers need to be patient. The promises were willingly made by the government, the promises will be fulfilled,”
NAN / Foluke Ibitomi
