Provide Essential Support For Farmers : Akoloaga

An Agriculturalist, Dr. Ashimashga Michael Akoloaga, has urged the federal government to provide essential support for farmers to overcome challenges facing the agricultural sector.

He made the call while addressing newsmen in Abuja.

Dr. Akoloaga suggested that the federal government should provide inputs like fertilizers and herbicides to community heads, who can then distribute them to farmers, making it easier for them to access these critical resources.

Dr. Akoloaga who is also the Chief Executive Officer, Eden Moringa Productions and Marketers Limited, emphasized that every country that has achieved success in agriculture has done so by believing in themselves and working to develop their own capabilities.

Akoloaga stressed that Nigeria has the raw materials and manpower to produce and export, but needs government support to overcome the current challenges.

According to him, “Every country that is a producing nation today, has gone through what we are going through. How did they come out of it? They believed in themselves and worked on themselves. We have everything we are producing here and we can take it out”.

“If we can’t have the machines and everything, you import the machines and export the fruit, those are the basic things. Despite the fact that we can’t go away from these challenges that we are having because of epileptic power supply, it doesn’t mean that we can’t manage and do the basic things that we do here for the time being”.

“So Nigeria is both a producing and consuming nation. I know Nigeria is a very big market in the African continent, when it comes to population. So with our population and manpower, we can do both producing and exportation. We have all the raw materials for that”.

“You can’t export your products out when there are contaminations, we are talking about the aspect of herbicides, you can apply the herbicides which are synthetic on your farms. But when you have the basic organic fertilizer on ground, it solves the problem of other foreign countries who are going out of synthetics. These are the ways we can solve these challenges”.

“As farmers we will face challenges. The basic ones are just the fertilizers and the herbicides. These are the two major things farmers are going through, other pests or maybe insect control, those are minor things.”

Dr. Akoloaga who added that government should start planning ahead, set targets and believe in its ability to achieve set goals explained that the basic challenges comfronting farmers is fertilizer which is the major responsibility of the government to provide to all the communities in Nigeria.

“The basic ones are the fertilizers, herbicides are the major things required of a farmer. Others are pest control which are minor, If it is a large scale farm, the tractors, we do not have all the tractors on ground but for the basic fertilizer we are saying it is the major responsibility of the government to provide fertilizers to all the community heads in Nigeria” Dr. Akoloaga stated.

The Agriculturalist who stressed that the time has come for Nigeria to move from a consuming to a producting nation added that the non availability of power supply is the major factor rresponsible for inadequate production of goods and services.

“Every country that is a producing country today has experienced what Nigeria is experiencing, they came out of it believing in their ability and working towards it, the main reason of this crisis is epileptic power supply. Nigeria is both a producing and consuming nation” the Agriculturalist added.

Dr. Akoloaga therefore appealed to the federal government to stop giving money to farmers but make available necessary inputs needed to explore the agricultural sector.

By Georgina Humphrey