By: Ikenna Oluka
While it is not yet Uhuru in the Nigeria’s quest for food sufficiency, the National President of All Farmers Association of Nigeria (AFAN), Arc Kabir Ibrahim, believes that farmers in the country have been a lot of sacrifices to ensure food supply is maintained in the country.
He said, “I wish to congratulate you for all the effort and patience you have demonstrated in doing the needful to provide food for Nigerians in the face of the economic hardship we are experiencing at this time.
“I dare say but not for the sacrifices and efforts by the farmers of this country our situation would have been worse.
“I am writing this in the hope that our leaders will come out to praise our effort in answering the call to go back to the farm at the launch of the APP( Green Alternative) at Sheraton and Towers by the Vice President on behalf of this administration.
“I subscribe to the Ibo proverb that says “the lizard that falls from the Iroko tree and wags it’s tail and crawl away would praise itself if nobody did”.
“I praise you great farmers and appeal to you to not rest in your oars as you work very hard to restore the dignity of Agriculture in Nigeria’s economy.
“There are several windows of opportunity in the areas of seed,mechanization, further technology, processing and other inputs that the government needs to incentivize a little more to enable our farmers to produce more as well as get more value from our toils!
“We shall continue our advocacy to ensure that more enabling environment is provided going forward but hasten to caution you that the concept of farming as a business remains the only viable option for us in this economy!”, he concludes.