Dry season farming under threat from delay in GES input supply

The All Farmers Association of Nigeria (AFAN), Kaduna State chapter has raised the alarm over the non-supply of farm input for dry season farming.

It said the call became imperative because dry season farming under the Growth Enhancement Scheme (GES) had not started.

Nuhu Aminu, chairman of the association said this in Zaria, Kaduna while appealing to the Federal Government to intervene.

He said: “The GES dry season farming programme ought to have started in October last year, but up to now, nothing had been done.

“We are already in February and we are still waiting for its commencement. I want to use this medium to appeal to President Muhammadu Buhari to direct the Minister of Agriculture to launch the 2017 GES dry season farming so as to enable farmers across the country to access farm input.

“The fertiliser and seeds under GES are genuine inputs; they are supplied at subsidised rates to boost the morale of farmers and increase agricultural production.

“We usually get discounts on the prices of the inputs and this assistance has been beneficial to many smallholder farmers.”
Aminu said farmers across the country had complied with the directive of President Buhari to return to the farm.

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He said the directive had yielded positive results as many Nigerians had now embraced farming as their livelihood.

“As farmers, we have listened and complied with the President’s instruction; we went back to our farmlands and produced enough food last year.

“However, we are already in the dry season farming period, which started since October, but up to this time, neither fertilisers nor seeds nor chemicals had been released to farmers,’’ he said.

He stressed the need for the government to do something urgently to sustain the support of farmers for government policies and programmes.

“Things are not moving well as far as dry season farming is concerned; therefore, the government needs to do something urgently to improve agricultural activities and keep the farmers’ faith in it,’’ he said.

Aminu, however, called on the citizens to support the government in its efforts to execute its agricultural policies and programmes.

“Failure to supply fertilisers, chemicals, and seeds will not augur well for the next farming season because we don’t have enough seeds to plant.

“Apart from that, the assistance from government has been helpful in encouraging people, especially the youth at the grassroots, to embrace farming,’’ he said.