‘FG’s policy on rice production unrealistic’
Do you know if farmers in Sokoto State have been accessing agricultural loan under any federal government arrangement?We are not aware of any arrangement by the federal government to assist farmers with loans because I am not aware of any farmer in this state that got any agricultural loan through a federal government arrangement. But […]
Do you know if farmers in Sokoto State have been accessing agricultural loan under any federal government arrangement?
We are not aware of any arrangement by the federal government to assist farmers with loans because I am not aware of any farmer in this state that got any agricultural loan through a federal government arrangement. But I am aware that the state government disbursed agricultural loans to farmers twice. One of these two loans was to the tune of N2 billion through Fidelity Bank about 3 years ago. Last year the state government again disbursed another N2 billion to farmers as loan through Fidelity and NACB banks. The arrangement was for the farmers to use their crops after harvest to refund the money gradually.
What are the problems affecting farming activities in the state?
Yes, we have the farmers and we have enough land to cultivate, but the smallholder farmer does not have access to finance and a standard company or marketer to buy his goods at an encouraging price. Assuming the money the federal government claimed to have been giving to farmers as loan and the one the state government is disbursing will get to the real farmers, Nigeria would have been a net exporter of food and cash crops. I was listening to the radio the other day when the federal government said it has given loan to farmers in the country. I am telling you as the AFAN chairman in this state that no single smallholder farmer or farmers association in this state benefitted from such loan. Unless they are telling us that they gave the loan to an unknown farmer in the state or a faceless farmers group. All the farmers in Sokoto State belong to one farmer group or the other and all farmer groups in the state are under AFAN. No group got any loan facilitated by the federal government in this state. Then who is deceiving who?
How is the federal Ministry of Agriculture assisting farmers in the state to enhance production?
The Minister for Agriculture came and made some promises of providing us with improved seeds and fertilizer for sorghum, rice and soya beans farming. He fulfilled his promise and sent the fertilizer and seeds this August ending. What are we going to do with seeds and fertilizer when farmers are preparing for harvest?
Sometimes you start wondering if the big men steering the affairs of agriculture in this country even have timetable for planting crops. You are giving farmers seeds and fertilizer in the last week of August and you say you want us to plant. Plant what? Some of the seeds were distributed just yesterday. Timely supply of seeds and fertilizer will surely enhance production. So long as these inputs will not get to the farmers at the right time we require them for planting, they will forever remain useless to the farmer. It is like medicine after death.
How effective is the GES programme here?
It has its own problems. Sometimes farmers’ information are mixed up. A farmer that registered at a particular local government has his name appear far away from where he registered. Due to inconveniencies and distance, the farmer will be forced to forfeit his allocation.
Is the state government also providing farmers with fertilizer?
Of course they do provide. Instead of the two bags the federal government is giving to some smallholder farmers under the GES arrangement, Sokoto State government gives as much as 10 tonnes or even trailer load to a farmer depending on the size of one’s farm. The least a farmer can get from the state government is five bags of fertilizer. Some may not get any at all but the least one can get is five bags. Before flagging off the distribution of fertilizer in the state, the governor invited all commissioners, local government chairmen and councilors, AFAN, party chairmen and all stakeholders and directed that every farmer in the state, irrespective of his political lineage, must be given fertilizer and that is how it has been.
The federal government has been encouraging farmers to go into cassava production, have farmers keyed into that here?
Yes, we did but we ended up with a lot of waste. There was glut and no buyers. Government will just come up with a policy and tell farmers produce this or that crop. Farmers will comply, record glut and end up without buyers. I foresee a situation where people will begin to disregard such instructions because nobody will compensate you after recording such losses. We have a lot of cassava now in stock at Kebe, Tambuwal and Shagari but no buyers.
The same thing is happening on other crops like rice, sorghum and millet. I expect the federal government under the food security arrangement to buy up excess crops from the farmers and store them in their silos which they can send to areas like Borno, Yobe and Adamawa as relief materials. On the other hand, that will encourage farmers to produce more. We do not have companies here that can buy such crops in bulk and use them as raw materials. We thought the federal government had a plan of getting good market for cassava before they asked us to embark on mass production. That is why I always see the federal government policy on rice, cassava and other crops production as unrealistic.