Stakeholders in Ogun have raised concerns over the continued hike in prices of food items across the nation.

The stakeholders, in separate interviews in Abeokuta on Monday, identified the causes and proffered solutions to the challenges, amidst reported government’s interventions in the agricultural sector.

Mr Abiodun Ogunjimi, the Secretary of All Farmers’ Association of Nigeria (AFAN), Ogun chapter, noted that the situation had reached an alarming state.

Ogunjimi listed the possible causes of soaring prices of foodstuffs to include: high cost of transportation, increasing inability of farmers to go to farms due to insecurity, foreign exchange crisis, climate change and lack of access to loan facilities by farmers.

He advised the Federal Government to synergise with state governments to create enabling environment to boost food production.

The AFAN secretary also urged the Ogun government to check the adverse effects of urbanisation on agriculture.

“The increasing rate of migration from rural areas in the state to urban centres has led many farmlands to be abandoned and converted to other uses that are not beneficial to agriculture.

“Government needs to pay adequate attention to rural dwellers and ensure that its presence is felt so as to discourage such migration,” he said.

He also called on government to embark on effective irrigation projects across the state to reduce sole dependence on rain for farming.

“This measure will enable farmers to farm all-year round and boost production, thereby forcing prices of food items down,” he said.

Ogunjimi stressed the need for the state government to engage in buying farm produce directly from farmers to discourage movement of food items to neighborhouring countries.

He noted that such step had become necessary to address the loss being incurred by farmers through the activities of middlemen who usually buy from them at ‘ridiculously low prices’ and sell at high prices to consumers.

Ogunjimi also advised the government to ensure that farmers were involved in the formulation and implementation of policies on agriculture.

“It is the farmers who know better what their challenges are and the way to resolve them.

“It is not government officials who sit in the comfort of their offices and just imagining the problems and proffering solutions,” he said.

In his contribution, Mr Austin Owezie, an agriculture expert, called for deployment of more security personnel in rural areas, particularly the forests from where kidnappers, bandits and herders often operate.

“Security of farmers is crucial to food production and unless this is priotitised, all other efforts will just be a waste,” he said.

Owezie, who frowned at importation of seedlings for planting, noted that doing this would mean that Nigeria had indirectly handed over its food production to foreign countries.

According to him, such situation will engender ‘food colonialism’.

He, therefore, called for increased funding of the various agricultural research institutes across the country to enable them assist in the development and use of indigenous seedlings to boost agriculture.

The Commissioner for Agriculture and Food Security, Hon. Bolu Owotomo, said that the state government had continued to invest in agriculture to boost food production.

Owotomo said that government had massively supported farmers with inputs and also built their capacities toward increased productivity.

He said that more than 30,352 farmers had benefitted from various input distributions at subsidised rate of 50 per cent under various intervention programmes.

The commissioner listed some the inputs distributed to the farmers to include: fertilisers, urea, herbicides, cassava bundles, faro and ofada rice seeds as well as maize seeds.

“Capacity building was also organised for more than 46,000 small-holder farmers on sustainable agriculture, improved knowledge and productivity under the Value Chain Development Programme (VCDP), OG-CARES Fadama RA 2 project and Ogun State Agricultural Development Programme (OGADEP).
“The ministry carried out reforms on agricultural land allocation to investors to enhance access to agricultural land in which a total of 8,550 hectares had been allocated to private investors across the state on different agricultural value chains,” he said.

On loan facilities, Owotomo said that government had disbursed N50 million loan to Ijebu Development Initiative on Poverty Reduction (IDIPR), Eriwe, Ijebu-Ode.

He further stated no fewer than 587 VCDP beneficiaries across the eight participating council areas had been linked with FCMB for financial credit.

Ogunjimi added that 95 small-holder farmers had been able to access loans from FCMB for cassava and rice production, valued at N26.7 million.

The commissioner explained that the government had already mapped out strategies to ensure that farmers and their produce were secured to enhance productivity.

Dr Samuel Nzekwe, a former President of Association of National Accountants of Nigeria (ANAN), in his submission, emphasised the need for fixing the economy for agricultural sector to thrive.

Nzejwe urged governments at various levels to invest in provision of critical infrastructure, such as stable power supply, good road network and adequate security, among others, to drive the economy.

“The availability of stable electricity supply will help both small and medium businesses to thrive, as their impacts will positively contribute to the nation’s gross domestic product (GDP).

“Government needs to proactively address the challenges that are not making the real sector to produce enough goods and services for local consumption,” he said.

The former ANAN president also urged the federal government to repair all the nation’s refineries and halt importation of crude oil.

This, according to him, is also a contributing factor to the continuous rise in inflation rate and volatility in foreign exchange.

Dr Tunde Adeoye, a Senior Lecturer in the Department of Economics, University of Lagos, said government needed to exercise political will to address the current security challenge in the country.

Adeoye noted that once the country is seen to be secure, foreign investors would be attracted, foreign earnings increased and the economy stabilised. (NAN)