Price of soya beans may rise further, farmers warn

The Soya Beans Farmers Association of Nigeria (SOFAN) has raised an alarm that the activities of bandits across the country, especially in the North West, have prevented their members from cultivating soya bean this cropping season.

National President of SOFAN, Dr. Nafiu Abdu, told Daily Trust on Sunday that the prevailing insecurity, flooding and the delay by the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) in fulfilling its promise to the farmers as at when due were all contributing to the situation in the sector.

He said the price of the crop may also go up in the near future as some farmers still battle with subsistence farming, where a job that was ordinarily supposed to have been done in two hours, takes two or more days because of the crude implements still employed by the farmers.

The association therefore called on the federal government to come to their aid in the areas of upgrading their farming tools, early delivery of inputs and multiple taxations, adding that all these culminated in making the price of the crop go up.

Dr Abdu said “The production of soya beans has really gone down due to two basic reasons. One is that many soya beans farmers were affected by banditry, so many of the farmers did not cultivate their farms because of the fear of being kidnapped or killed by bandits.

“The second problem is what we normally get from the government, through the Anchor Borrowers Programme, did not work out this year. These two problems complicated the issue of soya bean production this year. Many were able to produce it on their own, without any support from the authorities.”

He therefore warned that the “price of soya bean might actually go up because the demand for the crop is still very high. The poultry industry uses soya bean as a major raw material for the production of poultry feeds.”

In terms of the repayment of loans given to the farmers by the CBN, the SOFAN President said “What happened was that we had a problem with the farmers refunding what they collected from the CBN and the problem was not really with our farmers. The funds were actually provided very late to the farmers and because of that, they were unable to use what was given to them and last year when farmers went to the field, some places were affected by flood and eventually they reached an agreement with our farmers that whatever they cultivate this year, they’d use it to repay that loan that the CBN gave us.

“But with what has happened, some people are ready to pay but others are not. We are however doing something on our own part as an association to see what we can put together to raise a substantial amount for the CBN.”