Farmers, CBN disagree on anchor fertilizer

*farmers task NAIC on 80% insurance. 

Participants at the CBN/NIRSAL Anchor Borrowers' Programme Town Hall Meeting

As the preparation for the 2018 rainy season for food production in the North Central of Nigeria is about to commence, the town hall meeting between farmers and the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) NIRSAL had a stalemate as the Community Allied Farmers’ Association of Nigeria (COMAFAS)  kicked against the official use of NPK fertilizer

being a synthetic input that can negatively impact on quality of produce in terms of premium price. Also farmers demanded that Nigerian Agricultural Insurance Corporation (NAIC) be more responsive with supportive friendly policy that would reduce farming challenges in term of losses.

The town hall meeting aimed at boosting maize production through the Federal Government Anchor programme of inputs support cum off takers availability was held last friday at Karu Secretariat, Nazarawa local Government council, and in attendance were representative from NIRSAL/CBN, NAIC, COMAFAS and Government Assisted Farmers Association (GAFA).

All deliberations were positive on adoption of maize anchor programme at a very cost effective ways except the issue of NPK fertilizer adoption which was kicked against by COMAFAS, one of the farmers’ associations who advocated on the use of organic fertilizer for its premium attraction for the produce. COMAFAS argued that NPK is not of quality and it might end up hindering the achievement the programme targeted.

 Mr. Adul Yusuf, a COMAFAS officer raised that the use of synthetic fertilizer would not help farmers to achieve the increase productivity, saying that organic fertilizers are the best option for the success of the maize anchoring programme. He added that “synthetic fertilizers lack quality, for the type of result the associations want for the programme”

 Yusuf stressed that the issue of fertilizer should be taken seriously before commencing the project so as to avoid any regret that might occurred using synthetic fertilizer, noting that numbers of farmers in the country were daily reducing due to insecurity.

The convener of GAFA, Mr. Ibodjie S. Okpe who commended the FG on her support told foodfarmnews that the maize anchoring programme brought to farmers’ doorstep by present Government has an opportunity that should not be wasted, stating that the farmers need to be well informed for improved productivity.  Also farmers urged NAIC to profer solution through their mandate to farmers and herdsmen clashes thereby leading to losses of crops.  

Peter Adamu explained that NAIC needs to create a better platform that will help to fix the issue of herdsmen attack on farmers’ crops using a friendly insurance policy, pointed that the interference of the government on this issue is very pertinent to food security.

Also, Mr. Aderibigbe Oba lending his words to NAIC’s support said that 80% security and insurance of farmers’ crops would galvanize production stressing that the continuous killing of food producers without a stop might lead to food scarcity in the coming years.