Chigozie Amadi
The All Farmers Association of Nigeria (AFAN) has predicted a bumper year for Nigeria in terms of food availability and prices.
The National president, AFAN, Kabir Ibrahim, during a chat with THISDAY, hinged his prediction on a strong naira performance, maintaining that Nigerians should expect higher productivity and cheaper products in 2024.
In his words, “We are lucky that the naira is firming up, apart from insecurity, there is also a challenge of inputs, most of the herbicides and insecticides are imported, but we believe with naira firming up, it will help in reducing the cost of production. We expect higher productivity and cheaper food products in 2024 because the context of food security is that food must be available, affordable and balanced.”
“The purchasing power of the naira has a lot to do with that and once it firms up, we believe things would work very well. The President assured the nation that his government is doing a lot to curb inflation and we can see the efforts of the CBN in that regard, we believe it is in work in progress,” he said.
On Nigeria’s long walk to attain food security, the AFAN boss said the present administration is on the right path to achieving the feat considering some of the lofty and credible partnerships the Tinubu-led administration is prioritising.
“The government is implementing a programme supported by the African Development Bank (AfDB) to focus on four crops which include, wheat, rice, cassava and maize. The National Agriculture Growth Scheme Agro Pocket. We have done the flag off of the dry season programme on wheat in Jigawa State and our members have started harvesting already,” he said.
“The federal government is also supporting 500,000 farmers and they will get everything free from the herbicides, insecticides and fertilisers. The support would cover only half hectares of land in each State. The government is also doubling their efforts to tackling insecurity and prioritising mechanisation. The government will be one year in May, but we can only encourage them to do better. We applaud their efforts and we urge them to increase the tempo especially on insecurity,” he averred.
He also called on the State Governors to complement the efforts of the federal government to tackling food shortages, saying that to achieve food security is an onerous task that only the federal government cannot achieve alone.
“We believe that the government is doing its best and the farmers are encouraged to keep going and working assiduously to make Nigeria food secure. The federal government is making efforts to support farming all year round. Even from the point of view of the Nigeria Agric Business Group (NABG), with support from the Bill and Melinda Gates, they are promoting an agricultural smart policy that would drive all-year round farming,” he stressed.
He commended the federal government for the progress made in tackling insecurity food producing States, saying that farmers have begun to experience respite in that regard.
“We received testimonials from farmers who said that they had to give money before they go into their farms, but I believe there has been a lot of respite in that regard as these States have deployed vigilantes while there is also a strong presence of the Nigerian Army,” he noted.
