Borno farmers seek more support to boost food security
By Peter Uwumarogie
Some farmers in Kwaya-Kusar Local Government Area of Borno have called on the Federal and state governments to increase support as well as initiate programmes aimed at empowering and encouraging farmers to boost food security.
They made the call in separate interviews with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Kwaya Kusar town on Tuesday.
They stated that the call became imperative in view of the high cost of farming which they said was becoming unbearable for farmers in their communities and the low prices of grains after harvest.
Alhaji Hassan Musa, Chairman, All Farmers Association of Nigeria (AFAN), Kwaya Kusar chapter, said there was need for improved support from the government to tackle threats to national food security.
Musa said many farmers were either reducing their farmlands or abandoning farming for other vocations because of the high cost of farm inputs.
He said that the challenge of high cost of inputs was further worsened by the low prices of produce after harvest which he said made farming no longer as lucrative as expected.
“Without support, farming will become out of reach for ordinary farmers in rural communities as many farmers are now going into farming for their own food needs.
“This was not the case some years ago under the Muhammadu Buhari’s administration where farmers were supported with inputs under the Anchor Borrowers’ Programme.
“With such support, many farmers here engage in commercial farming, harvesting hundreds and thousands of bags of grains from various communities in the LGA.
“We are appealing to the government to resume the programme because many farmers are losing hope in farming,” he said.
Mr Yusuf Ali, a multi-grain farmer said the vocation was gradually becoming too expensive for most farmers, stressing that without support it could be difficult for more persons to sustain the vocation in the future.
Ali said investing in farming was increasingly becoming difficult in view of the risk involved, especially when most farm produce was cheaper than the cost of farming.
“This is why we are calling for support from the Federal Government like the Anchor Borrowers’ Programme or similar initiative because farmers are not really having a good time now,” he said.
Maryam Garba, another farmer from the community said she invested over N250, 000 on her farm but “I am not sure of getting 10 bags of maize and I learnt a bag is less than N27, 000”.
Garba said without support, she may not cultivate her farmland next cropping season as she was already weighing other options where her investment could yield better returns.
Another farmer who preferred to be called Ibrahim said he had stopped cultivating crops like maize and rice that require lots of fertilisers while opting for soya beans and cowpea as farming is his only occupation.
He appealed to the government at all levels to increase support for the farming community in the council and state as farmers were getting poorer in spite of their efforts in the vocation.
Others who spoke to NAN, commended the Federal and State Government while urging them to initiate programmes that would empower and encourage farmers to cultivate large farmlands to boost food security in the country.
