By Emmanuel Udodinma
The All Farmers Association of Nigeria (AFAN), in its bid to collaborate with the Federal Government for the effective implementation of the declaration of emergency on food security programmes, has set up three committees, namely, Seed Committee, Mechanisation Committee and STI Committee.
These are in addition to its existing Fertiliser Committee already working with the Federal Government to fashion out the best way to bring down the price of fertiliser to enable Small Holder Farmers (SHFs) scale their productivity, which will enable them to bring about the much needed food security.
A statement signed by the association’s National President, Kabir Ibrahim, said, “it is pertinent to note that the food system requires synergy with all stakeholders in order to fully reinvigorate it and make food less costly and, therefore, readily available to the majority of the people.
“Seed, they say, is sine-qua-non to agricultural productivity and its optimum utilisation is germane in the quest for the attainment of food security.”
According to the statement, “mechanisation essentially replaces human power with machine power thereby optimising efficiency through the maximum utilisation of mechanical advantage.” It stated that Nigeria’s mechanisation is currently below average and would require certain improvisations, innovations and, sometimes, disruptive innovations to bring it to a desired level.
The statement, however, said “in the short term, small hand-held and light farm machinery must be utilised before procuring heavier and more efficient farm machinery which cost more, especially, taking cognizance of the dwindling purchasing power of the naira.
In addition, the statement noted that, “another very important vehicle for scaling up productivity is the full deployment of STI (Science, Technology and Innovation), which has so many components from mitigation of climate change, climate smart agriculture, deployment of agricultural biotechnology, artificial insemination, vertical farming, hydroponics, SCI (System of Crop Intensification), good agricultural practice (GAP), food safety, further research to mitigate or reduce post-harvest loss, value addition, storage, sales and marketing, among others.
“To enable AFAN to collaborate effectively in the food security question, we have decided on proactively setting up the committees as outlined forthwith.”
