… We’ll ensure there’s no food scarcity – Osun
BY TIMOTHY AGBOR< OSOGBO
ALL Farmers Association of Nigeria, Osun State chapter, has said it will be difficult for the South West to escape food crisis if the governments continue to neglect farmers.
The Chairman of the association, Suleiman Araokanmi, who disclosed this to THE POINT on the telephone, said the Osun State Government had not been supporting farmers.
He claimed that farmers in Osun State had not received any financial support from the state government neither had the Government assisted the farmers with farm equipment and tools.
He said the North made nothing less than N10billion every week on pepper alone, adding that many farmers would have more produce and be more empowered with government support.
The chairman said, “The problem of South West is that we don’t know the value of farming. Our youths are not even motivated by the government to go into farming.
“Since the North stopped bringing pepper to the South West, they have been losing N10billion every week. So, this shows the huge amount that the South West is wasting on agricultural produce from the North when they can be grown here.”
He added, “We have the money but we can’t work. Unfortunately, the few people that are farmers have not been receiving any financial assistance from the government. We call ourselves farmers but we don’t even have tractors and other equipment and our Governments are not borthered.
“I have made several attempts to meet with Governor Gboyega Oyetola of Osun State to help farmers but all in vain. The people surrounding the Governor confuse him. We don’t have a single tractor in Osun State and I fear that this ban of food supply to the South West may cause food crisis if the Governments don’t act.”
But the Osun State Government has said it will ensure that there is no food scarcity in the state.
Specifically, the Commissioner for Agriculture in the state, Adedayo Adewole, said farmers in the South West had met and would be embarking on a massive agricultural production.
For Osun State, there have been some policies by the state government to ensure abundance of food in the state. Adewole disclosed that the state Governor, Gboyega Oyetola, would be commissioning a new farm settlement in Ile-Ife.
He said the Governor had provided 10,000 hecatres of land for this purpose and that the settlement would kick-off with 1,000 acres of land, owing to paucity of fund.
The Commissioner, while speaking with our correspondent on the telephone, also said that the state already had a small-scale tomatoes production and training project at Aisu area of Ede. He said the unit was already producing 200 kilograms every week.
He said there was also broilers production as an alternative for beef, adding that the South West region would ensure that it reduced reliance on the north.
