All Farmers Association of Nigeria (AFAN) has set up three new committees in a move to assist the Federal Government in driving emergency on food security.
The committees are: Seed; Mechanisation; and Science, Technology and Innovation. This is in addition to the already existing Fertilizer Committee working with the federal government to fashion out the best way to bring down the price of fertiliser to enable smaller holder farmers to scale their productivity.
In a statement on Thursday, AFAN National President, Arc. Kabir Ibrahim said the move was pertinent to build collaborative efforts with the federal government as the food system requires synergy with all stakeholders to fully reinvigorate it and make food less costly.
He said that seed remains sine-qua-non to agricultural productivity and its optimum utilisation is germane in the quest for the attainment of food security.
Accordingly, he noted that mechanisation essentially replaces human power with machine power thereby optimising efficiency through the maximum utilisation of mechanical advantage.
He said: “In Nigeria today mechanisation is below average and for it to reach a desired level certain improvisations, innovations and sometimes disruptive innovations may have to be embraced.
“In the short term, small hand-held and light farm machinery must be utilised before procuring heavier and more efficient farm machinery which cost more, especially, taking cognizance of the dwindling purchasing power of the Naira.
“Another very important vehicle for scaling up productivity is the full deployment of STI which has so many components from mitigation of climate change, climate-smart Agriculture, deployment of Agricultural Biotechnology, artificial insemination, vertical farming, hydroponics, system of crop intensification, good agricultural practice, food safety, further research to mitigate or reduce post-harvest loss, value addition, storage, sales, marketing etc”.
