The All Farmers Association of Nigeria (AFAN), Osun chapter, has decried the unavailability of tractors in the state for its 431,000 registered members.
Alhaji Sulaimon Araokanmi, the state chairman of the association, made this known in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Osogbo.
Expressing his displeasure for the challenges the members are facing, Araokanmi said the association had met with the state government officials to proffer solutions.
“The AFAN has met with Governor Gboyega Oyetola to tender our challenges and ask for support from the state government to ease the pains we go through in our operations.
We have asked the state government for financial assistance because we have gone beyond subsistence farming to agricultural business.
We also asked the government to provide tractors for us because there is no tractor in the whole state that farmers can use to cultivate,’’ he said.
Araokanmi said it had not been easy for the farmers, adding that it was costly to cultivate hectares of land manually.
“It is so bad that there is no single tractor anywhere in this state that farmers can hire for operation.
The governor has promised to assist us, but paucity of fund has been a restraining factor for the state government.
The governor said he would have attended to our requests some weeks ago, but the EndSARS protest and the violence and looting that followed prevented him. He, however, promised that he would do something for us soon.”
The AFAN chairman commended the Anchor Borrower’s Programme of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN).
Araokanmi also urged the Federal Government to deal directly with grassroots farmers instead of politicians who claim to be farmers.
He alleged that those unreal farmers usually “corner the packages and benefits that are meant for local farmers in the state” (NAN)
