August protest : Reactions trail President's speech on Agriculture

 

Some Nigerians have expressed their disappointment on President Bola Ahmed Tinubu ( BAT)'s speech particularly with the aspect that dealt with food security, describing it as passive to the reality facing food agricultural development.

President Bola Ahmed Tinubu has on  Sunday reacting to the August 1st Protesters on end bad governance in Nigeria said that his government had given incentives to farmers at affordable prices to increase food production towards affordability.

Tinubu added he has been meeting with states' Governors to accelerate food production with directive to remove tariffs and other import duties on rice, wheat, maize and sorghum.

" We have distributed fertilizers. Our target is to cultivate more than 10 million hectares of land to grow what we eat. The Federal Government will provide all necessary incentives for this initiative, whilst the states provide the land, which will put millions of our people to work and further increase food production. In the past few months, we have ordered mechanised farming equipment such as tractors and planters, worth billions of Naira from the United States, Belarus and Brazil. I can confirm to you that the equipment is on the way"

None of these propositions seem to attend to immediate needs of Nigerians as food security is concerned according to Dr. Olukayode Oyeleye, Special Media Assistant to the two former Ministers of Agriculture, Dr. Akinwunmi Adesina and Chief Audio Ogbeh.

Dr. Kayode Oyeleye expressed dissatisfaction on direct fertilizers distribution to farmers in view of high corruption through the process in the past, adding that importation of yet to be delivered tractors is unheard of. 

According to the former media aid on Agriculture " I was baffled, apart from obvious exaggerations and untruths read in his speech that he could announce that his government has gone back to direct fertilizers distribution to farmers. The nebulous idea of importation of tractors, yet to be delivered is ridiculous"

" No mention was made of any collaboration with the sub national governments, especially at the state level where agriculture is practiced. He altogether missed fiscal policy intervention and said nothing about rural insecurity and how to tackle in any attempt to boost agriculture.

He described the speech as empty to food security, saying the idea of import tax free for food import is retrogressive to farmers' production.

" The speech was dry and uninspiring as far as agriculture is concerned. The idea of import tariff holiday for six months is going to be problematic in the sense that it will disempower local farmers"

One farmer who wanted his name not to be mentioned, asked where were the points of these fertilizers' distribution,  and for which particular farming season were the inputs meant for.