Juliana Agbo, Abuja
MAIZE Association of Nigeria (MAAN) has called on the federal government to provide interventions for maize farmers in the country to enable them meet the 22 million metric tons target for 2020.
President of the Association Dr. Bello Abubakar who made the call in an interview in Abuja, stated that the government needs to provide some level of intervention such as inputs, subsidy and easy movement of farmers to their farms.
He said the call had become necessary as maize farmers are unable to access their farms, unavailability of inputs, and the suspension of flight into the country due to the lockdown.
According to him, government can set up a committee that can liaise with the commodity associations to get inputs directly to farmers; this he said is the best way to ensure that genuine farmers get the inputs as the commodity associations have comprehensive data of registered farmers.
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“We have written to the Minister of Agriculture to be forwarded to the Presidency to alert them of the danger we are facing and let them know that they have to do something fast.
“They can assist farmers with inputs or any substantial subsidy so that the farmers can get some relief else the 2020 target of 22 metric tons will not be achievable.”
He further noted that the restriction of movement has made it difficult for members to go out and get inputs for wet season farming.
“The lockdown and curfew in some parts of the country has also affected dry season maize farming because some dry reason farmers who planted in December were not able to get to the farm to harvest leading to loss of income,” he said.
On the price of maize, he said the effect of Covid-19 is also being felt on the prices of maize in the market; “before the pandemic a bag of maize was between N8,000 to N11,000 in the open market but now the price has fallen which means the farmer is making losses.”
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