Farmers list security, 8 points for Tinubu to consider on food security

The National Agricultural Commodities Projects (NACP) and Strategic Alliance of Presidents of Agricultural Commodity Associations of Nigeria (SAPACAN) have commended President Bola Tinubu on steps taken to address what they called “short-term economic hardship resulting from subsidy removal and exchange rate harmonization.”

The President Maize Association of Nigeria (MAN) and Lead Partner National Agricultural Communities Projects, Dr Bello Abubakar Annur, who spoke on behalf of many commodities associations during a press briefing in Abuja, said it was a good idea to lay emphasis on increasing food production by encouraging the cultivation of 500,000 hectares of farmland and year-round farming methods.

They however worried that “security has not been given sufficient attention in the president’s pronouncements yet. It is also of utmost importance to deal with the issue of insecurity because without security, there can be no prosperity. If the issue of insecurity is not adequately dealt with, the implementation of these strategies could be in jeopardy.

“To prevent the mistakes of the previous government, NACP and SAPACAN recommend that N200 billion out of the N500 billion granted by the National Assembly should be managed by a dedicated committee including the whole Agricultural Value Chain.

“To the mutual advantage of all parties engaged and the country as a whole, multi stakeholder involvement in fund administration and disbursement will ensure synergy and joint operations.”

The farmers proposed creating a committee to oversee the N50bn allocated for the cultivation of 100,000 hectares of wheat and cassava, as well as N50bn for the cultivation of 150,000 hectares of rice and maize.

“Membership should include the national presidents of the 4 priority commodities. The committee’s task will be to immediately design the strategy that will help to mop the unsold produce in the rural areas and turn them into local food derivatives.”

The farmers and processors want the following to be done for successful implementation of the president’s target on the 100,000 hectares of wheat and cassava, as well as the 150,000 hectares of rice and maize to be cultivated:

Identification of states and local government areas where the project will commence; mapping and capturing participants, in cluster form, through digitalization; creating input redemption centres in the local government areas; recapitalize Bank of Agriculture (BOA) to work with commercial banks for the smooth running of the programme and facilitating cottage industries in the farming communities to mitigate wastage and gluts during harvest.

Others include setting up a strong security network between the Agro Rangers and local vigilantes and the Police as may be approved by the National Security Adviser; provision of the logistics that will include vehicles, funds to upgrade existing processing factories and other requirements, and the fund mentioned above should be 70 per cent grant and 30 per cent loan and removal of all unnecessary bottlenecks that will hinder easy and timely access.