By Pwanagba Agabus, Jo’s
The Federal Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development says it has distributed seeds, growth enhancers, seedlings, sprayers and equipment to support small-holder farmers in Plateau State.
The Ministry said doing the aforementioned would stimulate local production of food.
Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development, Dr Mohammed Abubakar, who distributed the farm inputs in Jos, said stimulation of food production would help to achieve self-sufficiency, attract investments, create jobs and enhance the livelihood of farming families.
He said that agricultural sector had become priority for the current administration and one of the major contributors to the economy, to more than 25 per cent to the Gross Domestic Product.
“Small-holder farmers account for about 70 per cent of national food production.
“This is achieved through the implementation of strategic policies such as the Agriculture for Food and Jobs Plan.
“Also, the Green Imperative, Agricultural Promotion Policy and the Presidential Fertilider Initiative, has been achieved,’’ he said.
The Minister said that the COVID-19 pandemic impacted on the sector which caused lots of disruptions along the agricultural value chains, leading to global trade disruptions and resulting in heavy economic losses to farmer’s livelihood.
He said that the ministry carefully assessed the COVID-19 negative impacts and designed a support programme targeting small-holder farmers to enable them return to the farms and continue production.
According to him, it is meant to enhance farming family income, create jobs and generate wealth.
He noted that 35 per cent of the inputs would go to women cooperative groups, 15 per cent to people with special needs while 50 per cent to farmer associations in various production clusters.
Abubakar commended the resilience of farmers and also appealed to development partners at the national and sub-national levels to support the President Muhammadu Buhari’s administration to ensure food sufficiency.
Also speaking, Governor Simon Lalong said that at the end of 2021, the state had witnessed two agricultural activities.
Lalong said that the activities are the farmers’ field day and the inauguration of the 2021/2022 dry season wheat cropping as well as the first ever International Potato Value Chain Conference.
He maintained that the roll-out was coming at the right time when farmers were preparing for the wet season farming and carrying on with the dry season farming.
“In recent times, especially in the COVID-19 era, our farmers have demonstrated more resilience in the agricultural sector where there is huge demand for their services and products,” he said.
The Governor said that amid the numerous challenges facing farmers such as shortage of farm inputs, seedlings and requisite extension services, there are security issues like kidnapping, banditry, herder-farmer conflicts and climate change.
He said it was estimated that about 15,000 hectares of farmland was not cultivated in 2021 due to insecurity while another 10,000 hectares was affected by climate change.
“To make things worse, there is an unprecedented increase in the prices of agricultural machineries and agro-inputs, ” he said.
Lalong said that the state had done so much in addressing the problems of farmers-herder conflicts and guaranteed the safety of farmers.
He said that Plateau was among the few states that were in the process of implementing modern ranching encapsulated in the National Livestock Transformation Programme.
“We have sent a draft bill to the state House of Assembly which is receiving the desired attention and will hopefully be passed soon,” the governor said.
He further said that in the recent years, the state had recruited 400 extension workers to promote best agricultural practices and also implemented climate smart agriculture that would adapt to, and mitigate climate change.
According to him, the state is determined to run its economy on agriculture because of the natural endowments that has given it the opportunity to cultivate several crops.
He said that due to the high level of unemployment which was causing many social problems, the state had also developed a model to engage and empower 35,000 youths across 48 agricultural value chains.
“Another pilot phase for 10,000 youths will be rolled out soon for the 2022 cropping season.
“We have also developed the Plateau State Agriculture Policy to guide our rapid development of the sector for the future, ” Lalong said.
He said that he had enumerated the efforts to underscore the relevance of the input intervention the minister was rolling out, and expressed optimisim that it would go a long way in assisting job creation within the sector.
He, however, thanked the minister for intervention of the federal government through the ministry.
