Farmers in Benue State have called on the federal government to reduce the price of Premium Motor Spirit (PMS), commonly known as petrol, as a way to address the rising cost of transportation, goods, and services.
They argued that lowering fuel prices would provide more meaningful relief than attempting to force down the market prices of agricultural commodities. According to the farmers, such moves are worsening their economic challenges, especially for those still recovering from the trauma and destruction caused by repeated herdsmen attacks across the state.
The farmers emphasized that production costs have significantly increased due to high fuel prices, and any attempt to reduce crop prices without addressing this root cause would further marginalize and impoverish them.
Our correspondent in a telephone interview with some farmers including Mwuese Agber, a rice and maize farmer in Guma, Aondosoo Jirgba, a yam farmer in Logo, and Ihaji Anebi, a rice and fish farmer in Agatu all raised the alarm over what they described as a deliberate attempt by the federal government to frustrate the efforts of local farmers through its recent crash of food prices without a corresponding reduction in the price of PMS which is the major cause of price hike.
According to them, forcing farmers to sell below cost price is infringing on their right, asking why can’t government force petroleum dealers to bring down the price to ease the cost of transportation to farmers which will drastically bring down the cost of everything?
“How can you force only farmers to bring down price then at the end the take home can’t buy anything for the household, pay children’s school fees and even buy drugs for them?” they said.
They said, “Government should stop playing politics with the lives of farmers by impoverishing them more and more after a hard struggle with herders and banditry attacks where most of them lost their lives, and others are living with permanent disabilities, while over 2 million are staying in the Internally Displaced Person Camps across the state.”
The Benue State coordinator for Sustainable Agriculture, Dr Aondongu Saaku , said the farmers are right to ask the federal government to stabilize the price of PMS, which is the major cause of price hikes in the country.
Dr. Saaku, who was the former chairman of the All Farmers Association of Nigeria (AFAN) in the state, lamented that the worst part of what the federal government did was deliberately opening borders for any food to come into the country as a way of causing a market crash for agricultural commodities, which is, in turn, frustrating the efforts of local farmers.
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