Real Farmers in Niger Delta Region seek improved seedlings, incentives from government
Blessing Ituma
Some Farmers in Rivers state and the Niger Delta Region of Nigeria have appealed to government at all levels to locate real farmers and assist them inorder to boost agricultural produce in the country.
They said that so much can be achieved if real farmers are identified and assisted even with improved seedlings instead of going through what they called ” portfolio farmers “.
Now is the peak of the planting season for farmers in Nigeria, and due to the drops of rain in parts of the country, they are tealing, cultivating, planting and weeding to guarantee a bumper harvest and others are into fishery, poultry and livestock.
Some of the farmers interviewed are of the opinion that so much food can be produced if real farmers are identified and assisted directly with improved seedlings and incentives instead of going through third parties who may not be farmers but only interested in using the portfolio to enrich themselves.
A Fish Farmer in Port-Harcourt, Mr. Emmanuel Okpara and Mr Henry Akpodieti from Delta State lamented at the cost of generating power to pump water and the cost of feeds which are responsible for the rising cost of fishes in the market, calĺing on the government to intervene.
“You give yourself 100% of essential equipment that are needed for your farming business, so it becomes a challenge to us even the area of assessing loan. High cost of material, like feed we buy fifteen, twelve thousand naira, now they are twenty something thousand. So those have made a lot of farmers to leave the business”.
A large scale farmer, the Director of Grace Farms in Uyo, Dr Ugo Solomon, into poultry, livestock and crop farming told Radio Nigeria that government was not being fair to real farmers as most incentives and grants they hear in the news never get to real farmers but end up in the hands of ‘portfolio farmers’.
She explained that a roll of drip tape for irrigation in crop farming is now N130,000 and a flat pipe at hundred thousand naira multiplied by the number of rolls required; urging the government to identify real farmers and support them with loan facilities and the hybrid seedlings for more food production.
“I have spent about two million on this alone, 2.5 acre, from drip tape and the lay flat, we still had to do plumbing buy pipe, sink a borehole that is not less than N300,000. Pump alone is about N150,000. You won’t need anything less than N1.5 to have the boreholes irrigated. We keep hearing that billions have been sent to States for farmers but we don’t know the Farmers because ‘We’ have never benefited from it”.
A Young Agronomist, Mr. Raymond Akpan into cucumber, tomato and okra farming observed that crop farming was very lucrative but that proper skills and funds were required which government can support the Youths to invest in.
“Government have been trying to make sure that agriculture is staying in the country but they should try to come to the real farmers meet the Farmers one and one most times, they should send their Agents to go down to where they have the Farms”.
The farmers are of the opinion that there’ll be huge transformation in agriculture if the real farmers are located and assisted.
