Nigerian farmers have raised concerns over lack of insurance coverage for farm operations which create huge challenge resulting in farmers’ loss of produce to some natural disasters.
The farmers made this known in a manifesto outlined as part of specific needs of Nigerian farmers which would form basis for their support to anyone seeking political office.
The manifesto published by the National Association of Nigerian Traders (NANTS) said farmers will expect politicians to commit to addressing the specific needs of the farming population during electioneering season which will encourage their vote while farmers will monitor their fulfillment.
“By this, farmers are making statement that they are no longer going to be used for election victory only to he dumped by politicians thereafter. Therefore this Manifesto is articulated to ensure that agricultural policies designer by the political class effectively target the beneficiaries and that farmers are empowered to hold public officers accountable.
“In order to continue to produce more food, farmer’s priority concerns must be addressed. Specifically, small scale farmers want every government to recognise them in setting agenda for growth and development. The opportunities are clear, global and domestic demand for food is on the increase and farming is becoming highly important to the economy in view of the dwindling oil prices.
“Farmers are ready too with the potential to increase productivity and reduce reliance on imported produce. What is needed now is a government that understands agriculture and one that supports growth,” it stated.
The group however said lack of insurance coverage may be partly because of the poor education of farmers on the importance of insurance coverage hence the current loss of farmers to flood and destruction of farms by cattle herd calls for concern.
It said farmers still carry out on-farm agricultural operations manually adding that the use of more efficient equipment and fame practices is still largely unavailable to the smallholder farmers of Nigeria due to high cost of services and scale of farm operations which does not lend itself to full mechanisation.
The farmers said there is a disconnect between policy implementation and the needs of small scale farmers adding, “This means that farmers do not benefit from policy incentive. The level of coverage of intervention programmes such as the Anchor Borrowers Scheme is too low to make significant impact on the smallholder community and their scale of operation, while the Growth Enhancement Support Scheme has potentials and should therefore be reconsidered.”
Farmers also lamented the effects of Naira devaluation, saying it has increased the cost of farm operations due to high import content of the farming inputs.
According to them: “There are generally high costs in the business environment heavily affecting farmers, and these range from Tue high cost of credit to its unavailability, high cost of energy, high exchange rate, multiple taxation, coupled with the above is Tue exploitation if farmers by market players due to poor regulatory oversight of standard regulation and enforcement agencies to ensure renumeration.”
They therefore demands for the dedication of 60% agric funds and facilities to scale scale farmers.
“Given the persistent poor access by many small scale farmers to the various funds for agricultural development which ends up in Tue hand L’s of commercial and political farmers, we demand that 60% of the agriculture investment budgets as well as any intervention facility created by the governments should be earmarked for small scale farmers and small scale agriculture.
“Importantly, rather than the usual processes that subject such funding to political romance between the federal and the state government and banks, where insider abuse and or huge access hurdles are inherent, the funds should be administered through credible and trustee farmers organisations and be directed at the following thematic priority area such as inputs supply to farmers, extension services delivery revival and small scale processing.
” Pursuant to this, the capacity of the selected farmers organisations should be strengthened to enable them effectively administer the funds to their members while government maintains constant monitoring on the process. More so the receiving banks should be selected through clearly set out criteria which includes track record of agriculture credit administration, development orientation, alignment and relationship with small scale farmers.”
They also called for establishment of a national Agency for Small Scale Agricultural Development by the government to immediately undertake a national survey of small scale agriculture, capacity assessment of small scale farmers and in turn design a national response strategy and development plan.
