Lack of loans impedes dev of modern agric

But this new and encouraging desire by Nigerian farmers to change from the old-fashioned farming methods are being hampered by both state policies and inability to access funds from financial institutions. The president’s hesitation in signing the Biotech Bill into law is also not helping matters. Many think that when he eventually signs it, situation […]

But this new and encouraging desire by Nigerian farmers to change from the old-fashioned farming methods are being hampered by both state policies and inability to access funds from financial institutions.
The president’s hesitation in signing the Biotech Bill into law is also not helping matters. Many think that when he eventually signs it, situation of farmers and farming would be better enhanced.
As it is, the implication is that the much envisaged agricultural turnaround courtesy of biosciences, especially by the smallholder farmers has been affected.
The hope of also reducing the intense labour invested in farming by poor rural farmers and that of getting better and healthier farm yields have been shattered.
Usen Umoh is a rubber farmer in Calabar, the capital of Cross River State. He manages the Royal Farms International Ltd, managers of the vast Biakpan rubber estate bought from the Cross River State government in 2003.
Umoh said the rubber trees were planted in the 1940s, meaning that the estate is now very old, although he explained “the older the rubber trees, the better the quality of their yield.”
He said that in order to derive greater yields they have decided to adopt biotechnology, including hybridization as they are replanting new and different species of the rubber trees.
“We are going to adopt modern method of planting to improve both the gestation period and quality yields. The existing species of rubber trees need to be regenerated and new varieties planted through the modern process of hybridization. Since rubber naturally has longer gestation period, this has discouraged many farmers and investors which made them to abandon the sector”, Umoh told our reporter.
This modern process, he maintained,  will ensure that investors no longer wait for too long before they begin to harvest. “We have deliberately embarked on this trend because we do not want rubber business to completely go down. There are still many needs for rubber in Nigeria and around the world. We need federal government and the banks to cooperate with rubber farmers”, he appealed.
Umoh said that the rubber sub-sector in Nigeria is presently facing several challenges and that these do not allow them to compete with their counterparts in other countries. This does not make the country to play her leading role anymore – generating needed income and providing jobs.
Factors such as bank credit and government policies have challenged the growth and impact of rubber business in the country, he lamented.
“Government is rather giving much support to cocoa because it does not take as long as rubber to yield. We rubber farmers do not have access to bank credits because of stringent conditions to discourage us. We are also shocked that much of government credits and assistance do not get to our sub-sector.
“As part of federal government Agricultural Transformation Agenda, the rubber sub-sector should also be given priority to enable us get back on our feet. Government should give us grants”, Umoh urged.
Also speaking with journalists, the Chairman of All Farmers Association of Nigeria (AFAN) in the state, Elder Samuel Inyang, lamented that lack of credit has tremendously impacted against expansion and modernization of farming.
Inyang disclosed that farmers in the state are lamenting that the N1 billion agricultural loan which the state received from the federal government last year never got to them as arranged but that only the large-scale farmers and other investors were favoured.
“As for loans to farmers, that is where government has spent much. But much of this loan went to large-scale farmers. The smallholder farmers who are actually the real farmers that toil hard to place food on our tables did not benefit much. Especially AFAN members did not benefit as they should from the last loan disbursement exercise,” he said.
However, the Commissioner for Agriculture in the state, James Aniyom, has debunked this, saying the major thrust of the ministry is the local farmers. “But there is no way we can be able to give credit facility to all the farmers at the same time. Many that meet specified conditions at the different phases draw from the many pools of agric funds in the state”, he said.
He informed that priority would be given to peasant farmers in the next disbursement of the federal government loan.
To emphasize that Cross River State has joined the rest of the world in adopting biotechnology in farming. He disclosed that they had to send their youths to a neighbouring country to learn modern methods of farming.
“We recently sponsored 100 youths to Benin Republic for training in modern agriculture and now we are looking at giving them loans to start up. There are types of loans for women and others,” he said.
But chairman of AFAN said that it is the peasant farmers that should be encouraged with the agric loan.
“As they are encouraged to grow more, to enhance their earning capacity, they will be able to move from peasant to medium farmers and to large-scale. If they are not encouraged by this credit facility, farming operation in the state would continue to be hampered. And if you do not make credit available to them they cannot uplift their production. Their farm produce will continue to remain low. The percentage of peasant farmers will continue to remain low.
“Some farmers have as much as 10 hectares but cannot cultivate them because of the high cost of hiring labour. With the high cost of labour, the small scale farmers would soon be thrown out of job because if they do not have money to hire they cannot cultivate or plant. If they have fertilizer and don’t have the money to till how will they apply the fertilizer? So the greatest problem facing farmers now is access to credit.”
He however, commended the state for the Commercial Agricultural Development Programme where farmers have presently benefited immensely on three commodities; oil palm, cocoa and rice and that the federal government’s Agricultural Transformation Agenda (ATA) has also made a great impact in agriculture.
He also praised the state government for supporting production of cassava, especially the proposed establishment of cassava processing mills in the three senatorial districts.