‘Government is deceiving itself on agriculture’

Agriculture budget for 2014 has been slashed compared to 2013’s. What does that portend? You see, the issue of agric budget, we discussed it at one of our NEC meetings, that as an association, AFAN has not been involved in any form. No input from us. So, I think government, working with the ministry prepares […]

Agriculture budget for 2014 has been slashed compared to 2013’s. What does that portend?
You see, the issue of agric budget, we discussed it at one of our NEC meetings, that as an association, AFAN has not been involved in any form. No input from us. So, I think government, working with the ministry prepares the budget. If you see the allocations to other sectors, they are relatively higher, but agric is the main stay of the economy. Although we talk about oil today, but you know we can only win the economic battle through agric. Because if you have no food to feed your people and you talk of oil, no one will regard us as a strong nation. A father that cannot feed his children is not a strong father, and cannot say he is economically buoyant. So, the country will be economically buoyant if we are able to produce enough to feed ourselves and to sell. Like I earlier said, we are not involved, but the budget is not adequate.
Our farmers are still using hoe and cutlass when we are talking of self sustainability in food production. What are you doing as a group to ensure that government mechanises farming in Nigeria?
We are sensitising our farmers to imbibe the idea of cooperatives. When farmers form cooperatives, they will have larger hectares of land where tractors and other farm machinery can be used. But when you have small, small farms scattered here and there, it is difficult for tractors and other machines to work. So, we are interested in that area and we are working on it. For now, tractors and other equipment available to the farmers are not enough. You can see a situation where a farmer will approach ministry of agric that he needs a tractor to work on his 10-hectares farm, he will be waiting for the same tractor which is working on another farm, and before the tractor gets to his farm, the time for planting has passed. And you know farming depends on time. So, we need tractors, we need more mechanised equipment to improve the performance of our farmers.
Marketing of crops has been a serious challenge to Nigerian farmers over the years. What do you think can be done to help the situation?
Government promised establishing Marketing Corporation over two years ago but we have not seen anything. May be they are still in the pipeline. The farmers are not getting good prices for their produce because we have excess in the market as at the time of harvest. When you sell at a price that is not suitable, you get discouraged and you have to reduce your farming activities. You see, government has to come in; bureaucracy should not delay the issue. At the time of harvest, government should buy and store so that farmers can have good money for their produce to encourage them. How long are we going to continue planning? Are we going to die planning? Government should do something urgently to assist the farmers.
Do you know how many farmers the government has registered across the country so far?
 The registration was not done through AFAN. Some few years ago, we did registration of farmers in some states. Some states complied, some did not. So, we were unable to get the full number of farmers we have. We were about to embark on that activity when we learnt that government is registering farmers. Now, government said that they used ADP. They did not make use of the farmers association that made it very difficult for them to get the actual figure. I am telling you the truth. Farmers know themselves. If you go to a village, anybody that does not have a farm there, they know. Government did it on its own. Farmers’ organisations that are on the ground were not involved. As an umbrella body of the farmers, we still have commodity associations under us. For example, I know that Cocoa Association of Nigeria (CAN) is doing registration of their farmers. And they are doing it properly so that they will know the actual number of their farmers. Government knows the right thing but they don’t want to do it. They are doing what is convenient to them, for their own interest, not the farmers? How many villages did they go and how many farmers did they capture? I know some terrains and villages in this country that ADP will not go; you have to trek for about three to four kilometres to get there.  Instead of using our ward, local government and state officials, they used government agencies. Government is deceiving itself on agriculture. They will not be able to reach the grassroots that they are talking about. Then, the whole transformation agenda will amount to zero. For me, personally, I know they have not registered farmers. And I stand to be corrected or to be challenged. Let them go through the umbrella body of the farmers association to get the actual number of farmers.    
How many of your members benefitted from the GES scheme last year?  
You see, I was in one of the states recently, I will not give you name of the state, and the commissioner for agric was having a meeting with the farmers. Farmers that came for that meeting challenged their commissioner that Mr. ‘A’ and Mr. ‘B’ got this while others did not. For me, I know some farmers got, many farmers did not get. Farmers need inputs; they need soft loans and other supports. Government knows the right thing, but they won’t do it. Government is yet to decide on agriculture, that’s my conclusion.