Agriculture sector stakeholders in Nasarawa state have urged the Federal and the States government to ensure timely implementation of agricultural policies to enhance crop production and food security.
Some of the stakeholders, who spoke to the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) on Monday in Lafia, while appraising the agricultural policy under President Bola Tinubu’s one year in office, called for concerted effort towards achieving food security.
Mr Jonathan Joshua, National President, Association of Small Scale Agro Producers in Nigeria (ASSAPIN), said that robust policies of Governments were often hampered by the delay in the process of implementation.
According to him, food security is being threatened by the delay in the provision of farm inputs and other agricultural machineries to farmers.
He, therefore, urged the federal and the Nasarawa state governments to be proactive in implementing their agricultural policies, adding that the implementing agencies needed timely support for smooth implementation.
“The policy of the federal governments on agriculture is robust, however, we are yet to see the actual implementation of what the policy is saying. Delay in provision of inputs and other agricultural machineries is what is hampering agriculture the sector.
“We also urge governments to put more effort in ensuring that early implementation, because agriculture is time-bound, once you provide inputs very late, the target will not be met,” he said.
Joshua urged the State government to do more in the provision of mechanised farm inputs such as tractors and power tillers to farmers.
He commended Gov. Abdullahi Sule for the recent launching of 23 tractors and other farm inputs, which he said were grossly inadequate to cater to need of the large farmer population in state.
“Although, Nasarawa state is making efforts to grow the agriculture sector, a lot more needed to be done in order to guarantee food sufficiency in the state.
“23 tractors cannot meet up the requirements of farmers in the state, in fact, one local government can use 23 tractors,” he said
Joshua further urged the federal and state to put more efforts in the area of procurement of simple farm implements for small and medium farmers as an encouragement to boost food production.
Also, Mr Envoh Emmanuel, Executive Director, Beacon Youths Initiative, an NGO, appealed to the federal and state government to pay more attention to the monitoring and evaluation components their agricultural intervention.
This, according him, is to ensure that all programmes initiated for farmers to boost crop production get to the intended beneficiaries.
He called on the state government to implement their intervention early enough to enable the farmers to plant their crops.
“They should also involve rural farmers in the design and the implementation of programme for both the federal government and the State government,” he added.
On her part, Mrs Jummai Yohanna, Chairperson, Small Holder Women Farmers of Nigeria ((SWOFON), Nasarawa state chapter, commended the federal government for supporting women farmers in the state.
“We gathered that the Federal Government had given assistance to women farmers in the state, though my organisation did not benefit from it,” she said.
Yohanna commended Nasarawa government for acquiring and cultivating 10,000 hectres of farmland in the state to boost food production.
She, however, appealed to the federal government to address the present inflation situation in the country.
According to her, farmers are facing serious challenges especially high cost of transportation, adding that farmers’ proceeds from the sales of their farm produce hardly take care of their needs.(NAN)
