By Ebere Agozie
Mr Daniel Okafor, National President of Potato Farmers Association of Nigeria (POFAN), has urged the Federal Government to support genuine farmers and not political farmers.
Okafor said this at the end of the year get-together event of the members of the association on Saturday in Abuja.
He said that the event is aimed at taking a critical look at the 2023 agricultural scorecard, and to also deliberate on expectations of farmers in 2024.
Okafor said the federal government should profile all farmers in other to have a data base of genuine farmers.
“All these people you see parading themselves as farmers policy and implementation makers are political farmers.
“They are not practising farmers, they don’t plant anything and yet they highjack all the incentives provided by the federal government for genuine farmers.
“If government continues to patronise political farmers they will continue to experience the same result, which is severe hunger in the country.
“Let them change their strategy, work with real farmers and they will get results.
“I have seen the government sending some people abroad, spending our scarce resources to buy seeds, when our own researchers can give them same if properly funded.
“They should properly fund our research institutes, and they will get better results even cheaper than global-trotting in the name of getting seeds for farmers.
“I also call on the research institutes to carry farmers along because these farmers are in the best position to help them in the field trials and revert with honest results”.
Okafor said government at all levels should intensify efforts in tackling insecurity in the country to enhance food security.
“Many farmers have been deprived access to their farmlands for fear of either being kidnapped for ransom, or being attacked or killed by herders”.
He, however, promised his members a better 2024 farming season where most of the challenges of 2023 would have be improved.
“By God’s grace, we will embark on more capacity building of our farmers to create more awareness, and in the monitoring and evaluation of Impact Assessment on farmers.
“We will increase government- farmers interaction so that we can share ideas on how to have sustainable food security in our dear country”, he said”.
