THE Potato Farmers Association of Nigeria (POFAN) on Wednesday appealed to the Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development, Mr Mohammed Sabo Nanono, to involve farmers in decisions on agricultural development.
Mr Daniel Okafor, the President of the association made this appeal in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Abuja.
According to him, involving farmers and agriculture stakeholders will help the minister meet the demands of farmers across the board.
“The urgent need of farmers now is for the minister to take up the issue of biometric and data for all farmers associations, co-operative societies, agricultural unions and commodity associations and to complete the exercise.
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“The minister should make the Bank of Agriculture relevant to enable it to meet farmers’ needs in the area of clearing, inputs and timely response to farmers and herders crisis.
“To monitor programme projects effectively, the minister should strengthen the extension services and value chains of all the commodities as well as monitoring and evaluation units,’’ he said.
Okafor said that there was a need for a special insurance policy for the farmers and to have a second budget for agriculture.
He said that there was a need to strengthen farmers associations to monitor programmes and projects in their various locations.
Okafor said that the programmes were expected to yield good results and ensure the development of agriculture in the country.
The POFAN president said that doing the above would help the nation’s food security for all.
He said that the vibrant agriculture sector would guarantee employment for women, youths, less privileged and vulnerable groups in the society.
Okafor said that vibrant agriculture sector would also take care of nutritional crisis as well as rid the nation of crisis arising from unemployment.