Don urges Nigerian Government to subsidize agric equipment

A university don, Prof. Ayoola Olalusi, has urged the Federal Government to subsidize agricultural equipment to support farmers in order to boost food production.

Olalusi of the Department of Agricultural Engineering, Federal University of Technology, Akure, Ondo State, disclosed this in an interview held in Lagos state.

The don who lamented high cost of obtaining agricultural equipment said most farmers lacked the financial capacity to purchase equipment to promote agricultural mechanization.

Olalusi said that most farmers do not have the financial capacity to purchase equipment to promote agricultural mechanization.

He noted that agriculture should be seen as agribusiness and not an arm of government.

“To me, the challenge we are having with agriculture is that it should be moved away with government. Agriculture should be called a business and we should start looking at it as a business and not as an arm of government activities.What government should do about agricultural mechanisation is to introduce subsidy.

“The cost of obtaining agricultural equipment are very high, and most farmers do not have the financial capacity to do that, so government need to subsidise it. Government should setup a means of subsidising agricultural mechanisation at a reduced rate by making it available to the farmers at the right time and at a cheaper price.

“Without that it will be difficult for mechanisation to have impact on our agriculture,” he said.

Olalusi also urged government to create more storage facilities to store food and agricultural produce during glut.

“Government should create a good storage facility for our agriculture.We are producing a lot of agricultural products, most of them are very cheap but the storage facilities are not there.

“The existing facilities established by government are not well maintained. Many of those storage centres do not have enough money to purchase those food and agricultural product to be stored and that’s where government need to look at.

“Government need to create a means of buying these products from farmers at a good price so they too can make profit and can store them and sell them at the appropriate time,” he added.

NAN / Foluke Ibitomi