Nigerian farmers on Saturday called on the Federal Government to provide security, and affordable farm inputs like seeds, insecticides, herbicides, and fertilisers to boost food production.
The President of All Farmers Association of Nigeria, Mr Kabir Ibrahim told the News Agency of Nigeria in Abuja on Friday, that farmers needed some level of mechanisation.
He said insecurity prevented farmers from going to the farm, adding that farmers needed a sense of security alongside other requirements to enable them to put in more work on the farms.
Kabir advised that what technology incubation centres across the country were able to produce should be boosted to facilitate indigenous technologies which could be applied in agriculture.
He said various farm tools and implements for tractors could be manufactured in the country via the technology incubation centres.
The AFAN boss stressed that instead of waiting to import the parts of a broken-down tractor, Nigeria should support and encourage citizens in local manufacturing.
He said that in recent times, it was becoming increasingly difficult to import foods, and to help Nigeria become self-reliant in food production, the government should leverage genome-edited crops and Genetically Modified Organisms.
“We need all efforts to make food available because now, you cannot even import, every country is on its own.
“Our scientists are busy, they need to be helped, we need to patronise them, their products should be made available to farmers.
“This is the only way to get out because you cannot go and buy food from anywhere,’’ he said.
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