Vegetable farmers decry lack of govt support

Some of the farmers who spoke to Daily Trust in Jama’are said they have not been able to meet their production capacity due to high cost of production, coupled with near total lack of government support in the areas of sale of enough fertilizer at subsidized rate, non access to improved seeds, inability of the […]

Some of the farmers who spoke to Daily Trust in Jama’are said they have not been able to meet their production capacity due to high cost of production, coupled with near total lack of government support in the areas of sale of enough fertilizer at subsidized rate, non access to improved seeds, inability of the farmers to access bank loans, lack of modern farming tools like tractors and total neglect by all tiers of government among other reasons.
One of the farmers, Abubakar Abdulkadir, who said he produces onions, tomatoes, pepper, garden eggs, lettuce and cabbage, lamented that his production capacity is limited due to the fact that he has no access to modern farming tools to go into mechanized farming.
“I am using local tools like hoe and rake to clear my farm instead of tractor. I am forced to cultivate on a small farmland that I can handle manually. Another area I have difficulty in is in watering my plants. If you have a big farm, you must dig a borehole. Otherwise, you join others to dig a borehole but you must buy water pumping machine. When the machine breaks down, you use bucket to manually water the farm,” he said.
Abdulkadir said if the government can assist irrigation farmers in the area with loans that attract low interest rate and provide them with farm inputs such as fertilizers, insecticides, seeds and pesticide, it will enhance their production thereby increasing their wealth.
Ibrahim Hassan, a vegetable irrigation farmer in Jama’are, said the only time he got assisted by government with pesticide or any agricultural input was five years ago, adding, “I and a few other farmers are trying to revive a defunct farmers association, the Jama’are Irrigation Farmers Association hoping to get government’s attention through the group.”
Kassim Idris, also a vegetable irrigation farmer, said “Last month, when I was listening to the radio, I heard that government assisted irrigation farmers with farm inputs, I went and asked other farmers if they got anything but they all said no. We later found out that those that collected the farm inputs and loan were politicians and not farmers.”
However, the chairman of Jama’are local government area, Alhaji Adamu Aliyu, said government has scored excellent in the agricultural sector because it has distributed 2,400 liters of herbicides, 2,400 sprayers and insecticides free to farmers in the local government, adding, “Government has provided enough fertilizer at subsidized rate to the farmers. We also renovated the crops market situated in Jama’are town.
Governor Isa Yuguda of Bauchi state expressed dissatisfaction over farmers’ inability to massively embark on the use of modern technology in agricultural production, which he said is hindering government’s efforts towards food sufficiency in the country.
Yuguda said unless new technology is embraced and adopted by farmers, food security and creation of rural jobs and reduction of poverty through agriculture will continue to suffer setback. Emphasizing that agriculture is the only way to eradicate poverty in the country, the governor said he has made adequate arrangement for the provision and distribution of fertilizer to farmers in the state this farming season.