The ‘Egbe Agbe Onigari, Akinle-Ijebu’ has called on the Federal and state governments to reduce poverty and the high rate of unemployment in the country by assisting cassava farmers with soft loans.
The group said cassava is now a “golden crop,” adding that promoting agriculture could solve the challenge of hunger, poverty, increased social vices and unemployment ravaging the country.
Speaking at the bi-Annual General Meeting of the association in Ago-Iwoye, Ogun State, its Chairman, Chief Baderin Parakoyi, said a critical analysis of the economic situation of the country revealed the need for diversification from oil to agriculture.
The meeting, which has as theme: ‘Way out of the food and unemployment crises in Nigeria,’ was addressed by the Chairman of the Adenle Farms, Alhaji Wasiu Adenle.
The major reason the government relied on oil money, the University of Lagos graduate turned cassava farmer, said, was the criminal neglect of the agric sector by successive administrations.
“Cassava is now a ‘golden crop’ across the world, where over 2,000 different products can be extracted. Nigeria is currently the largest producer of cassava in the world with annual production of over 34 million metric tonnes. Yet, there is glut in cassava production in the country mainly because of the absence of adequate processing of the crop into many products,” he said.
Assisting the farmers, he said, would encourage them to cultivate more, hence there will be increased farm activities, while hunger, poverty and unemployment would be reduced.
However, Adenle identified paucity of funds and implements as the major problems confronting the farmers.
He said they were interested in supplying several tonnes of cassava to many of the agro-allied industries in the country, such as Dangote Group, Flour Mills of Nigeria Limited and Okin Biscuits, which they could not do because of insufficient funds.
At the meeting, the association released a 12-point communiqué on the way forward to boost food production in the country.
These are: There is an urgent need for inter-agency interaction for expedited information flows, facilitated and desirable synergies; private sector and other stakeholders should build co-operative linkages with farmers to catalyse a paradigm shift built on greater productivity; entrepreneurship and technology infusion into the nation’s farms; government should streamline taxes to encourage agric enterprises through incentives; and the government, in partnership with the private sector should also provide adequate training for farmers to ensure international best practice.
Others were that CBOS, NGOs and co-operative societies should be used to mobilise and direct agriculture since they are based at the grassroots; government should lease out storage facilities like silos, scattered over the country to farmers on group basis; government should create a fund to finance long gestation agricultural projects and managed through private sector involvement; both the federal, state and local governments must increase budgetary allocation to agriculture by at least 10 per cent initially and 20 per cent subsequently; agricultural loans must be kept at single dignity through strengthening agricultural credit guarantee schemes including incorporating appropriate incentives; priority attention must be given to the provision and rehabilitation of basic infrastructure most especially water, road and power to promote agricultural growth; and that federal, state and local governments must explore investment opportunities in agriculture; and that only politicians with good agricultural policies should be elected.
