The Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development, Alhaji Muhammad Sabo Nanono has urged farmers in the country to consider reducing the price of food stuff to help the federal government achieve its mission to feed the country and supply food to other nations.
The minister also said the farmers should consider the fact that government is disbursing agricultural inputs at a subsidized price or free of charge to them, as such they should also pay back by crashing prices.
Nanono stated this in Kano during the flag off of the year 2021 wet season support to farmers in Gabasawa local government area by the Agro-Processing, Productivity Enhancement and Livelihood Improvement Support (APPEALS Project), in which 200 farmers received farming inputs for rice and tomato production.
During the ceremony, 20 groups of farmers benefited from the intervention, where each of the groups received 80 bags of NPK, 40 bags of Urea, 1000kg of improved Faro44 rice seed, 80 litres of Agro Chemicals, five units of water pump, thresher, tricycles and land preparation of 20 hectares.
The minister said it’s amazing that the productivity of farm produce has increased but still the food price is costly, adding that a lot of commitments are put in place by the federal government to crash the price.
Represented by the Director in charge of North-West in the ministry, Alhaji Abba Gana, Nanono said “There is a lot of Agricultural interventions presently that disburses free inputs to the farmers but our appeal to the farmers is to help bring down the price of their produce a little.
“Despite the fact that the products are high but also the demand is still higher than the products. So we consume the farm produce now more than before because the population is increasing too. So our present policy is we should produce what we eat and we eat what we produce, and the policy gingered many people to go into farming.”
He added that because the demand is higher than what the country produces is the reason for the farm produce to be costly in the market, adding that government is doing its best to control the situation by providing improved varieties and modern systems to the farmers.
On his part, the state coordinator of the APPEALS project, Mallam Hassan Ibrahim caution the farmers against selling the agricultural inputs disbursed to them, begging that they should utilize it to become independent.
Speaking earlier, the APPEALS National Coordinator, Alhaji Mohammed Sani Jobdi said the project is committed to eradicating poverty and boost production among local farmers, including youth and women.
Join Daily Trust WhatsApp Community For Quick Access To News and Happenings Around You.
