...Criticises FG’s allocation to agriculture
THE federal government has been criticized for its 1.5 per cent allocation to the agricultural sector in the country.
Handing down the criticism was the Kano state chairman, All Farmers Association of Nigeria (AFAN), Alhaji Muhammad Sabo Na’nono, in a press conference with newsmen.
He said the allocation was too meager to an economic sub-sector that is contributing about 40 per cent of the gross domestic product of the country, stating that even the basic agricultural infrastructures that have been there in the last two to three decades were allowed to decay.
The chairman sets as an example, the Bakolori Dam among such infrastructures. “Twenty years ago, as you approach Talatan Mafara you only see green but now you see sand. With these, are we moving forward or backward in terms of agricultural development,” he said.
Alhaji Na’nono further faulted the slow phase the N50 billion loan disbursement to farmers. “It is very disheartening that only about 15 per cent of this facility has been disbursed to farmers nationwide.”
He said in Kano, about N50 million has been given to farmers, that more than half of this amount is for small scale farmers coming from the Nigerian Agricultural Bank and called for a lot of effort to be done in this direction in order to ensure that farmers benefit from the loan.
He further called on Kano state government to fulfill its pledge of placing N50 million in six commercial banks each so as to lend the money to farmers.
The chairman explained that last year, AFAN in conjunction with the state ministry of agriculture, undertook a survey of large scale farmers in the state and came out with a figure of more than 2,000 of them, but said that the exercise was not concluded and promised to review it, stating that was what they used for the allocation of fertilizer from the government to the association directly to take care of this group of farmers.
He said they received about 4,600 tones of fertilizer during the last three seasons and promised that his association will do more for the benefit of its members this year.