Abia State Farmers Cooperative Society has disclosed that the state may not achieve the Federal Government agricultural policies as a result of scarcity of farm inputs in the state.
The president of the association, Nwaogugu Uzoma, made the disclosure in a chat with Nigeria Tribune in Umuahia, on Wednesday.
He said that if the current unavailability of farm inputs was not resolved in the state, the hope for achieving massive production of food crops may not be realised in the State.
“The Federal Government has a good agricultural programme but currently, the problem we are having here in the state is that the inputs are very scarce, they are not available and when you find them they are so costly,” he said.
On the state of farm settlements owned by the state government, it advised government to consider leasing out of the farm settlements which are located at different local government areas of the state.
While regretting that farm settlements are left to waste, he advised government to consider leasing them out to farmer groups in the state for full utilisation and accruing revenue to government coffers.
“I strongly advice that the farm settlements which has been allowed to remain fallow should be revitalized so that the fund being committed into them will not be a waste. If the government does not have the fund to rehabilitate them, they can privatise them or even ask interested commercial farmers or even to the Cooperative Society,” he said.