Agro-Dealers defend, say we didn't create farmers' list

The National President, Agro-dealers Association, Alhaji Kabiru Fara has disabused the wrong accusations of round tripping being alleged his members against farmers during the 2023 dry season farming, saying they operated based on the directives given by the Federal Ministry of Agriculture and Food Security ( FMAFS), just as he emphasized that the program was 85% successful.

According to him “Initially, there was a misconception that agro-dealers were taking advantage of farmers. To address this, we had a transparent meeting with the Honorable Minister. I personally clarified the situation, although the minister didn't acknowledge it. The reality is that agro-dealers don't have access to the farmers' lists. We didn't create the lists; the Ministry of Agriculture and Food Security, along with their representatives and appointed ICT generated the lists, clustered the farmers, and sent codes to them. Our role as agro-dealers is simply to provide inputs and sell them to the farmers".

Fara explained that agro-dealers did not create the farmers' list, which was compiled by the FMAFS, but admitted that there were some political farmers who were actually reselling inputs to merchants. Fara confirmed that some farmers were indeed not genuine saying that "These individuals sell the inputs to merchants, who will now resell at higher prices"

 The Agro president acknowledged that some of his members who were business-oriented took advantage of the situation, but stressed that was not the representation of the entire association, adding that the main issue was the inclusion of non-farmers on the list, and which had caused delays in the payment of agro-dealers.

 Agro leader pointed that the government's political involvement in a program like this through the inclusions of names of people who were not farmers should be looked into for future corrections. He said " This was evident in the recent dry season maize and rice farming, where some state governments nominated friends and family as farmers. 

They aren't real farmers, so they sell the inputs. Some states even held polls to select farmers, prioritizing political campaigns over actual farming needs. How can genuine farmers afford to buy inputs at market prices when they need them?" 

Alhaji Fara explained further that the same challenge was encountered during the wheat program as political traders were included in the list of farmers. He however described the program as successful noted that no system can achieve 100% success especially when dealing with human beings saying that the African Development Bank's report showed that only 10% of farmers sold their inputs, and thereby indicating challenges like code issues and distance to collection centres.

 Fara thereby advised that agro dealers should be allowed to operate in a fixed location for farmers' accessibility and sustainability of inputs availability.