The National President of the Agriculture and Allied Employees’ Union of Nigeria, AAEUN, Comrade Simon Anchaver, has called on the new administration to focus more on mechanised farming by improving on the funding in order to grow the agricultural sector.
He gave the charge during the Agricultural Development Programme, ADP, Trade Group forum and courtesy visit to the center by Engr. Ikechukwu Azogu, the Executive Director.
Anchaver commented on the need to increase the funding of Nigeria’s foremost mechanisation institution, considering the agricultural sector’s strategic role in the agro-driven economy.
He said: “The leadership at NCAM needs more encouragement and proper funding by the Federal Government to enable it record more successes and be able to help in repositioning the country’s status on the food production index table among the committee of Nations.
“Oil prices instability and economic meltdown being experienced intermittently by even First World Nations is forcing global leaders to prioritise agriculture and our own President Muhammadu Buhari cannot afford to miss out on this juicy opportunity to revive agriculture so that it can be the new driver of our growing economy,” the AAEUN leader added.
He also urged the Federal Government on the revival of all the 37 Agricultural Development Programmes, ADPs, and the need for it to join hands with the state governments to adequately provide the requirements of the ADPs.
Describing ADPs as the engine room for the attainment of food security in Nigeria, the National Chairman of ADP Trade Group Forum, Comrade Jibril Abdul Nggada, said that the ADPs were confronted with a lot of challenges which hindered their effectiveness. He listed some of their constraints as, poor counterpart funding and shortage of field staff.
Meanwhile, the National President of the Tractors Owners and Operators Association of Nigeria, TOOAN, Mr. Bitrus Elesa, said the country needed about 1.5 million units of tractor in order to meet her agricultural mechanisation plan.
The TOOAN President called on the Federal Government to collaborate with the banks and other service providers to inject 20,000 units of tractors per annum into the Nigerian agricultural space. He explained that the 20,000 units of tractor would in turn cultivate five million hectares of land to boost food production and guarantee food security.
Elesa also advocated the local manufacturing of tractors that would be suitable for Nigerian soil and climate, noting that sustainable agricultural mechanisation cannot be fully achieved in the country through the importation of tractors.