All Farmers Association of Nigeria (AFAN ) has set-up three new Committees in move to assist the federal government drive emergency on food security.
The committees are; Seed, Mechanisation and STI Committee. This is in addition to the already existing Fertilizer Committee working with the federal government to fashion out the best way to bring down the price of fertiliser to enable smaller holder farmers to scale their productivity.
In a statement issued yesterday, AFAN national president, Arc Kabir Ibrahim said the move was pertinent to build collaborative efforts with the federal government as the food system requires synergy with all stakeholders to fully reinvigorate it and make food less costly.
He said seed remains sine-qua-non to agricultural productivity which its optimum utilisation is germane in the quest for the attainment of food security.
Accordingly, he noted that mechanisation essentially replaces human power with machine power thereby optimising efficiency through the maximum utilisation of mechanical advantage.
He said, “In Nigeria today mechanisation is below average and for it to reach a desired level certain improvisations, innovations and sometimes disruptive innovations may have to be embraced.
In the short term small hand-held and light farm machinery must be utilised before procuring heavier and more efficient farm machinery which cost more,especially, taking cognizance of the dwindling purchasing power of the naira”.
“Another very important vehicle for scaling up productivity is the full deployment of STI(science, technology and innovation)which has so many components from mitigation of climate change, climate smart Agriculture, deployment of Agricultural Biotechnology, artificial insemination,vertical farming,hydroponics,SCI (system of crop intensification), good agricultural practice (GAP), food safety,further research to mitigate or reduce post harvest loss, value addition,storage, sales,marketing etc”, he added.
