15 Tuesday. Nigeria' , Tribune 1 November, 2Ull
tidiOlis and discouragi ng due 10 lack of Ir"etor and modem farm equipment to increase their (000.1 produc-
lion capad ty. . "We can't p rod uce enough food with ru tlasses and hoes alone, desp ite the fa ct thai we are ready to adopt mechanised fanning in o rder 10 make food SUrpill S and cheap. but we cannot gel ilny hdp. There is no ern:our"gemenl ('\"en from the s late governme nt. I can tell you Ih .. , 1'\'(' not seen a s ingle bag of fertili ser in the las t fi ve yeilr5. yel, they wanl us to continue w ith fa nning . Food prices would continue 10 incrt!aS1E' unless fanne rs al the grnssrool ha\'l' unhindered acress to faml inputs," he
stated .
women OR practising farmers in Ogun ranti, Oguruemi. of these vill"Ses. In facl, there is noth ing 10 support Ogunlxx{o>, s.'Sbe, Pabi-Ekun and other small vn- agricultural practice and development," the farmers la_ lages in i..2gelu LocaIGovemmelit AreaofOyo State, mented. they said they are happy to be practising Iheir profession Speaking with Ihe Tribun e AgrIculture. Mrs ill their vilJage'1 and are always cilger to increase their Falilatu O ladepo, a cassav<\. maize and yam fann er in food and cash crops production. . Ogunbode village, said there w as no empowerment However, Lll" y 5<'lid some things were not making them programme either born the fedemL state or local gOV@TTlenthusiastic abl: 'ul funn ing. whidl they Silid ought to be me nts to assist women fanners in the village. an accepted plofession of many- N igerians. On whether the ·rarmers had i1 pproached the local A g roup of f:lrmers from the above mentiunoo vil- govemment to them to seek support and :lssistance, she lilgCS, n:!Cenl ly e ngaged the Trlbl1l1e Agriculture in said, " how many times are we going to disclose our an interview te' e.,press th~i r disa tisfacti ons over whllt problems to the manOigement of the council? TIley know LIley described as government's neglect and i~ili v. what weare I:lcking. they know that wcneed, they know ity of the stille Ministry of Agricu lture to Lllt'.ir plight, we need support, assis bnC"C, fertilisers, .seedli ngs and whidl they saict w as hampering their potential 10 in- other agric inputs, but nobody is ready 10 help us. We are crease their flX'd production cap."1Oty. practising (ilrmers and we know our capacity, but I:!ck Accord ing 10 thc farme rs, m:!ny communities in or inputs is affecti ng our food production capacily and Lagclu Local Govemlnent Arei! of the state were we ll poltentials." Ihey lamented. known for large scale production of cash and food crops, For yam. beans and cassava fanners like Jimoh Aliyu, he 5.'lid LllCl"C was no single lr.!ctor in Ogunranti village stressing 11m!, th atlVas why some people often rega rded the loca l gOl'errmen l as a food bas kel in the st:lle. HBu t it 10 help fam,ers prnctice their profession. He said he, like
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In Ihe opini o n of M rs Emily Oya ni y i a nd Adeb isi Oyadiran. they s., id they could not feci the impact of the s tnle govemrncnl imd lhcstille Ministry o f Ag riculture in their communitics. "The government said we should be fanning. we entered O ll/" famls and clea red hectares of farm land with ou r cutlasses and hoes, we planted vegetables like okro, pepper. tomatoes, ya mand other cro ps. 8ul we are becoming tired and is no longer on our sides as a result of rigorous and tidious wo rk we oft en do with cutlasses and hoes on ou r fanns on dail y basis. There is no fertiliser, no tractor, not even tomato seed lings and other fann -inputs. nollo til lk of support h om the gO\'emmen!. Honestly, we are ti red of farming and pef$Ollillly I'm p resently thinking of going to town to be selling bread," Oyadiran lam~ntcd . A farmer in 5.'lgbe and Pabi-Ekun villilges. Mr Fatai Ajeigbe S<'lid the problem of post-han'est wastages was a p roblem to many farmers in the village. HI produce large quantity of caSSo'lva,-yam and \·egetilblcs, but bulk of these harvested produce often get spoilt lJecause of lack of storage b cilitit'S.We wanl govern ment to help us to address Lllis problem so that food cCln be .lbunda n! in the countr),. M1lIly farmers in Sagbc and PabiEkun villages are gelling discouraged:·he slated. Other fanners like Mrs Comfort Ajcigbe. Mrs Olular o Oyebode, Mrs Adllke Morawo, Abigael Ajayi and Mr
" I'i"~d~t~h~"It~O~"~'~'~;~'i"io~~~~~tE~r"jo~.';it~;~Vo°~'~"" i~"-~~"'~hi<~,~r,~=~,~"~;~n~t~h~C~'[';~It~.g~'j'~I~"~d~h~"~'t~.~"~" o~r~r"~'~n~"~"~'d~is,~g~'I'~n~n~'~m~g~bi'~"lni'~S~°f."1'Ogundill l , HE Feele ral Go ve rnmen t Ihrou gh the Min'ster of Agricul tu re, Dr '\ kinwumi Adesina, has t ncouraged and ad vised the fl o ur millers and l~ke rs in the country to adopt the 10 per ccn t inclul io n of cassav;\ fl our in thei r produ ction line n as 10 encouIag e th e developm e nt o f thE n a Uon 's agricuhr.11 5('(lor. The mini!'t..r also said the tha t cass noa transfonnation agend a of Ihe presen t admini stration was aimed at encouraging large scal ~ commercial fa nni ng aJ ld to boost cass ava prod u ctio n so that the COll lllry cou ld continue to rr Clintain ils leading rule a!; a number one caSSt'lva prod ucer in the woriJ. He also sa id caSS3V3 should not bt: seen as a food olll (, bu t as a ' h at cou ld
T
the work on the faml
turn the econom y of the co untry aro und pos iti vely, as well as open the d oor o f employment fo r th o u sa nd s of un e m ployed y o u th s in the cou ntry. Accord ing to the minister. " the ohjecti ve o f the Federal Government castran s formati o n sava agenda / p rog ramme is to increase cassava prodllclion. prevent or eradicate the probl em o f cassava glu t through ma rke ti ng a nd b y u s ing the c ro p w hi ch th e cO l-l ntr y is known fo r to boost industria l d evelopment." Dr Akinwumi furLller exp lained lh al th e programme if well implem e nted , wo u ld increase cassa va pro du ct io n b ), Nigerian farmers from 34 m e tri c tons yearly 10 51 m e tri c tons by th e year 201 5. O n cassa va fl o ur, the m inister tasked flour mill-
e rs and b a ke rs in tllc c(luntry to obey and adopt the 10 per ce nt cassaV3 flour inclusion policy in the prod uc tio n of flo ur, stressing lililt if it is done, they w ould be directl y or ind irectl y co ntributing their quotas to the de velo pme nt o f thc nation 's agricultur,,1 secto r and nation's econo my. "The to per cent cassava flour inclu sio n po licy is a .serious agenda of the Fe d e ra l GOI'ernmenl The policy must be ado pted by fl our millers and bakers. It w as during Ihe reg ime o f C h ief O luseg un Obasanjo th at the progra mme s tarled, a nd thai is seven yea rs ago. ~ I h al'e tas ted e ve ry type of bre ad including those p roduced w ith cassava flour and I want to say that it is g~ , tas ty and nouris hi ng. It- is nol flour just as
Lasisi,
Oashim Adeleke, among others. lasked the slale government toSMa COIllfa C 10 thei r aids b}'giving them n('('(led s upports and assist.'lnce in term s o f agric-inputs so ~----, sta ted. Ihal the local govemment H o w e ve r . council can continue to the country's m:linlai" ils lead as one of associ a ti o n o f the leading food and Glsh fl our prod ucers emps producing \'illages in told the ministhe stale. te r tha t the Fed-
a ll ow impl e m e nta. lion of the 10 pe r cen t cassa va fl o ur in clus io n in the produclion o f £lour and breild to be g r3d u al, stre ss ing tha t doing this wou ld m;"\ke -Dr Akinwumi Adesina the policy to be mille rs and baker ha ve ad opted achievable a nd tasted it. So let us encou r- be a s uccess before 20 t5. O ne of the co untry's .. ge Ihe d e velopmen t o f our ecollOIllY by adopting leading flour producers, our own thing. Cassava Al h aj i Aliko, ~~~_~g~:,~ flour is good, it is mone)' I;"\uded the and healthy and it is also tasked the i~;~;;::.'t::~ a boosler for the develop- for g rad ual il ment " he lion o f the