By Correspondent in Minna
The Niger State Chairman of All Farmers Association of Nigeria (AFAN),Alhaji Shehu Galadima,has called on the state government to redouble efforts in arresting the spate of insecurity in the state to avert the looming food scarcity in the area.
He made the call on Monday in Minna when the State Deputy Governor, Alhaji Ahmed Mohammed Ketso, flagged off the sale of fertilizer to farmers in the state.
The state Chairman of the association decried the spate of insecurity in most farming communities in the state and appealed to the stategovernment to do something urgently to check the trend.
Galadima expressed concern that farmers, due to frequent attacks by armed bandits, had abandoned farms and communities, adding that except something is done and urgently too, scarcity of food in the 2021/2022 would be disastrous.
The state AFAN chairman pleaded with the federal and the state governments as well as relevant agencies to reconsider their stand and subsidize agricultural inputs, if food security most be attained in Nigeria.
Earlier While flagging-off the sale and distribution of the commodity,the state Deputy Governor,Alhaji Ahmed Mohammed Ketso, expressed the resolve of the state government to mitigate the effects of insecurity in the state.
He said toward this end, a bag of fertilizer (NPK), would be sold at the subsidized cost of N8,000 to farmers for 2021 wet season.
Jetson added said the state had so far procured 27 and half of trucks, equivalent of 15,000 metric tons of fertilizer for distribution to farmers across the 25 Local Government Areas of the state.
He said the present administration in the state had been doing everything possible to mitigate the the security challenges bedevilling most farming communities in the state and assured small scale farmers that they would benefit from the years’ sales at subsidized production inputs.
He said that as part of measures to ensure that the commodity did not get to the wrong hands, influences of middlemen would be adequately curtailed to ensure effective and efficient monitoring, distribution and sale of the commodity.
Earlier, the Commissioner of Agriculture and Rural Development, Alhaji Haliru Zakari Jikantoro,in his address of welcome, disclosed that the state government was determined to ensure food sufficiency and cash crops production to guarantee food security.
Toward this end,he added that efforts had also been made to generate employment and wealth creation for citizens, particularly unemployed youths, to reduce youth restiveness.
The commissioner, therefore, urged citizens in the state to engage in farming, no matter how little.
While reassuring farmers of access to high quality inputs for farming activities, Jikantoro, urged farmers to deploy all options possible to leverage on the vast opportunities abound in the state, assuring that the ministry would continue to implement favourable government agricultural policy to boost food production and security.
The Reporters recalls that the state has been facing series of kidnapping and killing by armed bandits among other security challenges with farmers and students as most of their victims.
