Herdsmen incursion: Establish Farmers’ Resuscitating Funds, Ogun governor urged

A prominent son of Ogun State, Engineer Gbenga Akinwande, has appealed to Governor Dapo Abiodun, to establish Farmers’ Resuscitating Funds, as a way of compensating and reviving farmers who lost their farm produce to the incursion of herders in Ogun West Senatorial District.

Akinwande in a statement made available to Tribune Online in Abeokuta, said farmers in Yewaland are mostly affected by the activities of the herdsmen, hence the need for government to establish the Funds.

He urged the government to invest in the people of the state, despite financial surpluses available to it.

He charged the state government to consider youth empowerment through agriculture to improve their economic lives.

Akinwande said, “many of our youths are in disarray due to lack of economic opportunities, thus it is imperative that government should come up with big ideas to redeem the situation.

ALSO READ: Bauchi Governor Mohammed pledges conducive atmosphere for security agencies

“I will appeal to the governor to lubricate the state’s economy by embarking on road constructions in the rural communities and villages by direct labour through the local governments to enable farmers have access to markets.

“Secondly, the government must come up with programmes/policies that will make land, loans/funds and machinery available to our subsistence farmers and unemployed youths. These will enable these farmers to increase their farming/production capacities and thereby increases the economic development of the state. Such loan/funds should be single digit interest rates and government must ensure that the machinery is available to these farmers at a very low controlled price.”

He also called for the upgrading of College of Agriculture of the Olabisi Onabanjo University at Ayetoro into a full-fledged University of Agriculture and that the university should be tasked to come up with the innovation of improving farming techniques in agrarian communities, and provide a new template of developing the agro-allied industries