The Sourh-East Coordinator of the All Farmers Association of Nigeria (AFAN), Chief Dunlop Okoro, has commended the Federal Government’s “expansive programme on agriculture”, designed to enhance food security. Okoro said this in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Umuahia on Tuesday, while reacting to President Bola Tinubu’s nationwide broadcast on Monday.
He described the Federal Government’s agricultural interventions as capable of boosting food production to alleviate the people’s sufferings.
Okoro further said that the programme would go a long way in cushioning the effects of the petrol subsidy removal on the prices of food items in the country.
He, however, urged the Federal Government to, as a matter of urgency, provide security for the nation’s farmers to have unfettered access to their farms.
“This is the only way they can further promote Federal Government’s expansive agricultural programme,” Okoro, the immediate past Abia AFAN Chairman, said.
According to him, farmers can only benefit from the government’s interventions when they engage in farming without fear of being attacked or harassed by criminals.
“The farmers are desirous to cultivate their farms since they have no other means of livelihood but insecurity poses a major challenge to them.
“If security is not guaranteed for them, how will they utilise the government’s interventions?
“It simply means that the aim of the programme is totally defeated.
“It has become almost impossible for farmers in the North to access their farms without the fear of being killed or maimed by insurgents.
“Even here in the Sourh-East, we are beginning to experience similar security breaches and attacks on farmers by bandits,” Okoro said.
He further said that it was unproductive and unacceptable for for the government to use its agricultural programme as a means to settle its political loyalists.
He, therefore, advised the government to use platforms that would connect it with the genuine farmers to ensure the success of its interventions.
He also called on the Federal Government to implement its plan to cultivate 500,000 hectares with maize, rice and cassava across the six geopolitical zones based on the zones’ comparative advantage.
Okoro further recommended that patriotic and qualified Nigerians be appointed to coordinate the agricultural interventions, if they must succeed.
He recommended the establishment of a mechanism to check corruption and ensure that funds and resources meant for the programme were not misappropriated.
-NAN
