The All-Farmers Association of Nigeria (AFAN), South-West Zone, on Tuesday, appealed to the government at all levels to provide irrigation facilities to enable farming activities throughout the year.
The acting AFAN Chairman in the zone, Mr Adewumi Abass, appealed while speaking about farming challenges during the dry season in Ibadan.
Abass, who is also the association’s chairman in Oyo State, decried the low rainfall experienced across the zone, saying it has greatly affected farm produce.
“The way things are going now is like the so-called wet season is almost out of the way; you know we have two planting seasons in Nigeria – the rainy and dry seasons.
“The rainy season starts between the end of March and early April, but you can see now that rain did not fall as expected during that period, and this is May,” Abass said.
He said that the scattered rain pattern in Oyo State has been of great concern to farmers.
“We have what we call August break, which has, at the moment, moved to between June and July, when farmers would start the dry season farming.
“We are in May now, and look at what is happening, some areas are experiencing rain, while some are not.
“If the government really wants to help us out of this system, what we need is irrigation farming.
“They should find the means of assisting farmers, maybe by giving irrigation facilities to farmers to pay back on instalments.
“This will help us to plant round the year,” he said.
The farmers’ chairman further called on the governments to help address the security challenges facing farmers, including the herders’ clash.
He called on the security agencies to increase their patrolling of farmlands to give farmers the required peace of mind while going to their farms.
Abass commended the Federal Government (FG) through the state Federal Ministry of Agriculture and Food Security (FMAFS) for the provision of farm inputs.
He also appreciated Gov. Seyi Makinde of Oyo State for promising to repay farmers half the cost of cultivating their farmland per acre.
The rainy season farming in Oyo State is a significant agricultural period, which covers March to October.
The state’s climate and soil support the following crops: cassava, yam, maize, varieties of vegetables, and many others.
Meanwhile, a director in the state Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development, Mr Titus Oluwole, said the state government started its activities regarding rainy season farming in late February.
Oluwole said that high-yielding seedlings were released to some registered farmers’ associations for onward distribution to their members.
He said that the state government also made low-interest loans available to genuine farmers, while it relaunched the tractorisation subsidy programme.
According to him, under this programme, the state will subsidise 50 per cent of the cost of mechanical ploughing services for every acre of farmland cultivated.
He said 1,487 farmers benefited directly from the programme when it was launched during the 2024 farming season, expressing optimism that more farmers would embrace it during the current farming season.
Oluwole said that some agriculture extension officers had also been trained and equipped with motorcycles to ease visiting farmers on their farms.
In Ilorin, women farmers called for the early release of fertilisers and farm inputs to help them survive the season’s challenges.
The women farmers, under the aegis of Small-Scale Women Farmers Organisation of Nigeria (SWOFON), said that the early support would enable them not to miss the rainy season farming.
SWOFON Deputy Coordinator in the state, Mrs Modupe Suleiman, said that the late release of the inputs might make them useless for the purpose they were meant to serve.
She advised that when the inputs and fertiliser arrive, they should be given to real farmers instead of political farmers.
The deputy coordinator added that political farmers end up selling the inputs back to farmers, thereby subjecting them to the hardship government planned to take away from them.
While lamenting the low rainfall, the Chairman of the Vegetable and Fruit Farmers Association of Nigeria, Ogun Chapter, Mr Timothy Eweoba says farm products are not germinating as expected.
He added that the situation, including the high cost of farm inputs, remained an unfixed challenge to farmers.
“This year’s rain is not okay for farming.
“It is only the weeds that are growing; the rains are not enough for our crops, and this remains a challenge we don’t know how to tackle for now,” he said.
In his submission, the AFAN Secretary in Ogun, Mr Abiodun Ogunjimi said that climate change had affected the expected rain.
According to him, with climate change, which has affected the rainfall, farmers are now starting to plant when they should have been harvesting.
“We need water.
“It’s been a long time since the rainy season is expected, we must make use of it so that we will be able to produce for the populace,” he said.
Ogunjimi explained that farmers’ main priority remained the issues of inputs and adequate security, and thereby called on the government to stand with them on this.
“We need land that will be easily cultivated in order to contribute to food security in the country. So, the state government should make land available for us.
“Also, the issue of insecurity, especially the herders’ damaging the produce, is not helping the matter.
“It is an issue that should be nipped in the bud; it’s a serious issue that is affecting our members,” he said.
NAN
