Agric Co-operative Societies Hold Great Benefits

Agricultural co-operative societies are platforms for assessing funding interventions from government. Ruth Tene Natsa writes on why farmers should exploit them  

“I cannot afford to take the loans banks are giving to farmers because I don’t have any collateral and neither can I afford the interests on those loans.”
These are the words of Margaret Iliya, a rice farmer from Kachia.

According to her, “ I do not have a house or land, I do not even have anything of value that I can give as collateral for the loans and even If I do, I cannot afford to pay the 15 per cent the banks are asking for.”
Iliya is not the only farmer that is having issues with access to loans due to her ignorance of the fact that she could join hands with other farmers to create a stronger base for accessing funds and providing good collateral basis as was the case of Madam Mary, a fresh produce farmer from Jos.

“For me belonging to a co-operative society is the best thing that happened to me because we were able to purchase a power tiller and tractor which we otherwise wouldn’t have been able to afford. With the new machinery now, it has helped reduce our labour and will help expand our production. Our co-operative society, the Small Holder Organisation Farmers In Nigeria (SHOFN), linked us with the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) and we were able to acquire the power tiller after a 20 per cent down payment, while the balance is spread across 12 months,” she said.

She added, “There are lots of benefits to gain from co-operative societies,they provide one with a platform to acquire machinery, seeds and fertilisers, in addition to helping to access loans.”
The lack of collateral to take advantage of the various funding platforms provided by various financial institutions such as the Bank of Agriculture (BOA) or even the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) has also been identified as a major challenge.

Permanent secretary, Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development, Mr Sunny Echono, has also echoed the benefits of agricultural co-operative societies to farmers especially as regards assess to the N220billion Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises Development Fund provided by the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN).
Echono,who spoke at the maiden special matriculation ceremony of the Federal Co-operative College, Organised for Co-operative Registrars and Officers of FMARD undergoing professional diploma courses on co-operatives at NCDC Sheda, was represented by the director of co-operatives, Dr Dickson Okolo.

Echono revealed that the ministry was also in touch with officials of the Nigerian Incentive-based Risk Sharing System for Agricultural Lending (NIRSAL) on how best to assist farmer groups and agricultural co-operatives access credits for their farming operations.
He added, “With a good number of available credit windows now in place, we are confident that the difficulties in accessing credit from financial service providers will soon be a thing of the past.”

Restating the commitment of the ministry towards supporting co-operative societies to play a greater role in achieving the goals of the federal government’s transformation agenda, Echono further added that” it is partly for this reason that approval was given for the 23 staff of the ministry to attend the 9 months course. We hope the training you receive at the end of the programme will equip you to be technically able to discharge your duties as cooperative registrars and officers respectively.”

Presenting a paper on the theme: “Repositioning Cooperatives for Greater Impact of the Nigerian Economy,” Mrs Justina Otaokpukpu, spoke on the challenges of Nigerian co-operatives to include weak co-operative movement, lack of enabling laws, limited access to finance, weak infrastructure, lack of awareness, among several others.

In her address, acting provost of the Institution, Hajiya Aisha Ishaq, called for a law establishing the college, better staffing of the institution, additional academic programmes, capacity building and teacher training programmes, provision of ICT infrastructures and facilities, fencing of the college as well as construction of student hostels.

There is no doubt that farmers would gain a lot by joining co-operative societies. It would not only help them access loans, but would stand as absolute guarantee in terms of emergencies caused by flooding and other natural disasters to their produce.

Farmers across Nigeria are in good stead to access various funding windows created by the immediate past government. It is imperative that every farmer should take advantage of these windows to further develop the nation’s agriculture.