….Laments destructive harvests by ‘army worm’ in 2016
Tunji Ademola,the President of Maize farmers Association of Nigeria,(MAAN) said with key support from the government on agro-inputs such as fertilizer and improved variety of seedlings,the association has the capacity to double current production of 11 million tons of maize in the country within two years.
The President of the Association told BusinessDay at its 2016 biannual meeting that the Association members are prepared to re-double their efforts in maize cultivation to supply for the commercial and domestic needs of maize,which are in high demands because of numerous advantages along its value chain.
Maize could be used for different purposes along its value chain such as poultry feeds, brewery industry, making Palp , Semovita and corn flakes industry.
He said,”Government must put its leg down and support farmers to double its production of maize so that we could avert importation of maize into the country. We must put our feet down and say no importation of maize within two years. With good seeds,with good fertilizer,the problem will be over”
According to Tunji,”Let me tell you,the Present administration has set a target of 20 miilion metric tons for Nigeria.Let us take our own local requirement of 14 million tonns,and probably 6 million for our neighbouring countries,because they come in here to buy and there is nothing wrong with that”
The President explained to BusinessDay that different regions have different varieties that will do well in respective ecologies.He said,” Our farmers are aware of the different variety to be planted in various ecological centres and are working towards it already,but we must get inputs such as improved seedlings and fertilizer in order to grow the sector”
“Government must make deliberate efforts to inject more funds into agriculture to make it more attractive to the youths. Government must play its role on addressing fake seeds and other issues”
According to Tunji,”Our own research institutes are dead. Thanks to International Institute of Tropical Agriculture,(IITA),and have been supportive. They have shown cooperation,for instance our technical coordinator is from IITA. They are even the one that told us about the Chemical to use to address the issue of ‘Army worm.We did not get much response from the government'”
Speaking on the post harvest losses caused by the army worm in 2016,he said,” We suffered the destructive effects of ‘army worm’ in South East,and it went beyond south east to South West,South South, and even spread towards North East and North West,because of poor intervention from the government”
“If the government has intervened with the right kind of Chemical last year while we got the signal and informed them,the productivity wouldn’t have been affected. Government should be ready to take urgent actions once there are issues of emergencies such as this”
If we have the right variety,we should be able to support the farmers to be able to produce. In the area of inputs. Because the inputs have gone so high,farmers have been not been able to afford it”
He,however suggested to the state governments to borrow from the example of the Governor of Kebbi state who has intervened in farmers to have easier access to the anchor borrowers scheme while bearing the risk through the commercial banks to most of the farmers in the state.
“Most of our maize farmers are complaining of poor support from various state governments. We want them to de-risk the farmers as the government in Kebbi have done.
