A mechanised farming Expert and Kwara State Project Coordinator for Fadama NG-CARES, Busari Isiaka has urged governments at all levels in Nigeria to intensify mechanised agriculture, to ensure food security.
Isiaka said that one of the causes of food insecurity is the inadequacy of mechanisation farming and urged the a Nigerian and State governments as well as International donors to tackle the problem.
He was speaking when he played host to Newsmen in Ilorin, the Kwara state capital.
Isiaka sited lack of funding as a stumbling block for the development of agriculture and adoption of mechanised farming in the country despite the enthusiasm of the people.
He, however, urged the government and financial institutions to provide soft loans for farmers.
Isiaka also lamented the effect of lack of good roads and other infrastructure which affect manpower on farms and in turn affecting production of food.
He said; “A lot of people are moving from the rural areas where agriculture is their main activity for the city, when you go to some villages now, you’ll realize that it is only the old ones that are still around and working on the farms, the young ones once they’re done with their secondary school, they’ll look for ways to travel to the city but if there are basic infrastructure in their communities, such as good roads, hospitals, schools they wouldn’t need to travel to the urban centre.”
Isiaka also spoke on the impact of the Fadama programme, saying “Fadama is an Hausa word meaning irrigable land. It started in 1993 and funded by World Bank, it has series stages, such as ordinary Fadama, Fadama 2, Fadama 3, and many others.”
He said, ”The initiative came purposely to support Nigerian farmers,and 6,002 kwara farmers have benefited from it in 6 months which is with support from different Enterprises and it has presence in the entire country and have done a lot of projects like drilling of boreholes and others.”
Mercy Chukwudiebere
