Agriculture
THE Vice President, National Association of Yam Farmers, Marketers, Processors and Exporter of Nigeria, South-West Zone, has appealed to the federal and state governments to provide finance and inputs for farmers to improve productivity.
Mr Olatunde Dare made the appeal in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) on Tuesday in Lagos.
Dare said yam farmers in the South-West zone were not enjoying any financial assistance, loan or grant from the government like their counterparts in other states.
He said the lack of support was affecting the cultivation of tuber crop in the zone thereby, limiting the production level.
According to him, without adequate financial support, mechanisation, improve seedlings and other agricultural inputs, developing the yam value chain will continue to be a mirage.
“In the South-West generally, we are not enjoying any support when it comes to yam cultivation.
“States like Benue, Abuja and Nasarawa receive loans and grants from the Central Bank of Nigeria we don’t in the South-West.
“We need the Federal Government and the Minister of Agriculture and Food Security to pay more attention to yam value chain.
“The type of yam seedling accepted for export can only be sourced from International Institute of Tropical Agriculture, Ibadan, and farmers need money to be able to engage in the cultivation.
“Also, our farmers wish that they too can produce variety and export it overseas but lack of financial support is affecting production,” he said.
Dare noted that the present economic challenges would continue to take toll on the farmers if no support was given to them.
According to him, many farmers are struggling to sustain their businesses, pay farm workers and rent mechanised equipment.
“We have fertile land and human resources but we lack finance and inputs to expand the yam value chain in the zone,” he said.
Dare said the association would form cluster groups within the zone and allocate more lands for yam cultivation with government support.
“Apart from Ondo State that is receiving support from the government, members in Osun, Ekiti, Lagos, Ogun and Oyo are not getting any support.
“Yam is a big value chain, we are exporting yam now, and also value addition to attract more foreign exchange earnings for the country.
“We don’t have challenges exporting yam, our members now export to UK, U.S., Ghana and other counties.
“They are using yam to make cake and it was part of the exhibition at a conference in Nasarawa in 2022,” he said.
Dare added that with government support, yam sellers would achieve more, saying, “we are all surprise at the cake innovation.”(NAN)
A.
-January 23, 2023 @ 16:44 GMT|
Tags: Mr Olatunde Dare
