Anchor program is a drop in an ocean, says AFAN president

*Buhari asks for more produce in ABP

 All farmers Association of Nigeria (AFAN) leader, Architect Kabiru Ibrahim has described the Anchor Borrower Program (ABP) of Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) as a mere drop in an ocean just as President Mohammadu Buhari advised more agricultural commodities to key into the program for food surplus to checkmate importation.

Kabiru Ibrahim said this in an interview with the Federal Radio Corporation of Nigeria (FRCN) in relation to CBN anchor program and farmers’ involvement, while President Buhari made his own statement in a speech he delivered at the commissioning of the rice mega pyramid in Abuja.

Ibrahim pointed that the 2.1 million farmers being targeted by the ABP of the CBN is too small when compared to the 14.5m captured by the Federal Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development (FMARD) under the leadership of former minister, and now President of African Development Bank (AfDB), Dr. Akinwunmi Adesina saying that the beneficiaries are too marginal to existing figures of 40 million farmers in Nigeria.

The AFAN leader in the interview acknowledged achievements cum many undoing of ABP implementations saying that ‘’ there are successes and failures, and more failures than successes honestly because what has happened is that the target of the anchor borrower program is about 2.1million farmers, and face value even from what Dr. Adesina used to bandy in 2014 was about 14.5 million farmers to about 2.1m. Then  what have you done, practically nothing and being the president of the farmers association and once president of Poultry Association, I know that there are about 40million farmers in Nigeria, and that action is like a drop in the ocean’’

AFAN president query the source of those paddies gathered to showcase at the Abuja mega rice pyramid commissioning in the face of insecurity and high cost of transportation that have affected the production performance of many farmers in the last wet and dry season plantings, stressed that the better thing that would have happened is processing to table for consumption at a subsidised rate through resuscitated National Food Reserve Agency (NFRA) as directed by President Buhari.

According to him ‘’ I believe if all of what I saw was given to the millers to mill and  NAFRA buys it all and sells back to the public at a subsidized price, the price of rice will come down, that is the essence of the guarantee minimum price, and that is the essence of having the food reserve agency. I do not know why we should have that much paddies in pyramids, and yet rice is very exorbitant in the market. My advice is soon after the carnival the paddies should be handed over to the millers to mill, and sell to NAFRA to subsequently sell it to the public at a subsidized price’’

He continues ‘’Okay we are talking millions of bags, does it mean that the farmers’ complain of insecurity and transportation challenges have been resolved to allow them harvest that much rice. Well I really don't have a firm grasp of what happened and how they were able to collect what they have displayed, but whatever it is, I come from the ravished area of southern part of Kastina state where we are not able to go out to farm and there are some rice farmers around there that I know have not been able to cultivate’’

Ibrahim however lamented on the way the CBN and rice farmers’ association have taken the whole program without carrying apex body of the farmers’ association he headed, and Federal Ministry of Agriculture with other strategic agencies along for more performance of the entire exercise being a national program saying that what happened after Emefiele.

‘’  Well you see the CBN's intervention has made it such that the rice farmers deal directly with the CBN and they have no recall whatsoever to talk with anyone else as you can see in the program that  prominence was not even given to AFAN being an apex body. We are not even mentioned. The Minister of Agriculture was not also mentioned there, you see the program does not even contain his picture, his portrait is not there and his name was not mentioned. Probably the CBN is doing agriculture on its own and that's what we have said should not happen.  We must have synergy between the CBN all crosscutting issues that affects agriculture and even the intervention of NALDA they should all be synergized and domicile in the federal ministry of agriculture for sustainability, what if Emefiele leaves office’’ said Ibrahim.

Meanwhile President Mohammudu Buhari has called all other agricultural commodity Associations that are yet to join the ABP to quickly harness the opportunity in the program like RIFAN in order to be part in the government’s policy of food sustainability through commercial production to checkmate import that is gulping our huge foreign exchange annually.

President Buhari said that  ‘‘the commissioning of this rice pyramid today is an indication that our country is making a steady and assured progress in food production and it is my desire in expectation that other agricultural commodity Associations that are yet to participate under ABP will emulate the rice farmers association in supporting our administration drive for food self sufficiency’’