Food security: Subsidise farm inputs to promote large scale crop cultivation, Kwara Assembly tells Gov AbdulRazaq
The Kwara State House of Assembly during Tuesday plenary asked the state Governor, AbdulRahman AbdulRazaq to direct the Ministry of Agriculture to look into the possibility of introducing subsidy on pesticides, herbicides and other farm inputs to reduce their prices as a way to promote cultivation of crops in large scale and ensuring availability of food across the state.
In a motion raised by Hon. Sheun Oguniyi David (Ojomu Balogun) and seconded by Hon. Saba Yisa Gideon (Edu) on the need to mobilize for uncreased agricultural productivity and substance farming in rural agrarian communities, the house sought to address challenges facing the agricultural sector to enhance food security in the state.
Hon. Oguniyi David noted that the state is blessed with enormous agricultural and other human and natural resources including capital potentials as well as its strategic location, to be one of the leading food producing States in Nigeria and by extension, West Africa
He expressed optimism that if rural dwellers across the state could practise subsistence farming, the proceeds would be used to cater for immediate food family needs while looking forward to introducing modern large scale agricultural practices in some communities.
Hon. Sheun also expressed concern with the culture of modernity and rural urban migration as the state has abandoned the traditional ways of life for a fast pace lifestyle of finding easy way out.
He further expressed worry that the food insecurity situation has further been exacerbated by individuals or associations whose business is to make profit by acting as intermediaries and market middlemen between the primary producers/suppliers of food items and the retailers/consumers in the market. This middle men act as agents in various markets, bringing no value to the supply chain other than the profit they make, which is passed onto the consumers to bear the brunt.
The house, however, urged the state government to intensify efforts to rid all parts of the state from all forms of security threats so that famers can concentrate on their farming activities and in turn enhance food security in the State, adding that the governor should consult the traditional and community leaders in putting necessary machinery in place to curtail the excesses of individuals or associations with no value other than profiteering as middlemen between the primary producers of food and the consumers in the markets in order to reduce prices of food items.
The house also commended the governor for his commitment to agricultural development as evident in the recent payment of the counterpart found on the livestock productivity and To Resilience Support Project (L-PRES), an initiative supported by the World Bank and the Federal Ministry of Agriculture as well as the distribution of farm input to famers across the State under the Input Support for Cluster Farmers Scheme, among many others while calling on all Kwarans to utilize every available space such as backyards and unused lands within their environment to cultivate farmland in order to proffer lasting solution to high costs of food items.
