We plant grains not seeds – FCT farmers

Most of the farmers who spoke to Daily Trust accused the government of depriving them of bumper harvest and better income as a result of its failure to accommodate them in the GES programme, stressing that they have been planting reserved grains from their previous year’s harvest due to lack of access to improved seeds. […]

Most of the farmers who spoke to Daily Trust accused the government of depriving them of bumper harvest and better income as a result of its failure to accommodate them in the GES programme, stressing that they have been planting reserved grains from their previous year’s harvest due to lack of access to improved seeds.
One of the farmers, Mr. Adamu Pasha, said: “I wonder why they keep saying they are providing improved seeds when many of us are not getting them. Go into the rural areas and find out how many farmers use seeds. Majority of the farmers plant grains and don’t get better harvest, so they remain poor.”
He added that even those who got some quantity of seeds from the government were not doing better as some of the seeds supplied were fake, adulterated and or expired.
When asked why he did not buy certified seeds directly from the market, the farmer answered: “We don’t have money and you need to travel very far to get the seeds, that’s if you are lucky to know where they are sold.”
A yam farmer, Alhaji Abdul Onah, told Daily Trust that many of the local farmers did not know the difference between certified seeds and grains.
He said that some of the farmers were not aware of the seeds, adding that other farmers preferred to continue with their traditional ways of farming.
“Many of these farmers need enlightenment. The government, seed producers and other stakeholders should step up awareness and sensitisation campaigns, possibly in local languages, to make the farmers embrace certified seeds.”
He said that apart from the problem of grains, farmers have continued to use manual labour, which has over the years made farming very tedious and slowed down productivity, instead of mechanised system of farming that could make farming attractive and yields better result.
When contacted for his reaction on the issue, the acting director of agriculture at the FCT Agriculture and Rural Development Secretariat, Alhaji Ovurevu Isa Ademoh, said that over 80,000 farmers got certified seeds in the FCT under the GES programme in 2014, yet the farmers were complaining.
Ademoh said: “Well, it’s not strange because no matter what you do, people must complain. Some are registered but don’t come to redeem their inputs, while others don’t care to register. Even if you provide improved seeds, many of the local farmers may reject it because they want to stick to their traditional ways of farming.”
On the issue of fake, adulterated and expired seeds, the acting director said any agro-dealer found to be supplying such items to the farmers will be delisted.