Farmers on a farm land

Mr Ike Ubaka, the National President, All Farmers Association of Nigeria (AFAN) has called on the Federal Government to put in place agricultural input legislation to guide the supply of improved seeds and farm inputs to farmers in the country.
 
Ubaka made this call in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Abuja on Tuesday.
 
According to him, establishing an effective legislation in the country that would monitor and control the supply of seeds and farm inputs to farmers would help in boosting productivity and food security.
 
``Farmers can be given any seed whether improved or not improved to use and if there is any economy loss, they cannot go to court to seek for compensation.
 
``Anybody can supply anything and call it seed. We do not have the legislation here to prosecute such people and the farmers are always at the receiving end.
 
``The government can use such legislation or criminal law to prosecute those involved in such criminal act of distributing adulterated seeds.
 
“If you try this act in Indian, you should be spending nothing less than seven years in prison,’’ he said.
 
He added that the agricultural sector was faced with more challenges that the government needed to address and not only seed and fertiliser.
 
``Agriculture is not all about seed and fertiliser. There are other problems which the Federal Government needs to address,’’ he said.
 
Ubaka stated that, however, major problem confronting members of the association was the issue of fertiliser.
 
``There is no fertiliser anywhere and there is no provision by government to start the supply any time soon.
 
“Farmers have been coming here with different complaints on how hard it has been accessing fertiliser from the open market.
 
``We have approached the Federal Ministry of Agriculture and we were told that the Growth Enhancement Support (GES) Scheme has been suspended for now.
 
``So there is no provision for fertiliser for 2015 dry season farming and no plan for 2016 plaiting season. This is our headache for now.
 
``Government gives two bags of fertiliser per farmer at its discretion without soil test to determine any deficiency of nutrient on a particular soil before supply,’’ he said.
 
On why the association was having two operational presidents, Ubaka said he was not ready to join issues with anybody as he was the duly recognised president of the association.