By Hussaina Yakubu
The North-West Agricultural Commodities Association (NOWACAS), has called on the Federal Government to take urgent plausible measures to reduce the high costs of farming inputs.
According to the association, this is with the view to bolstering the extant efforts to ensure sustainable food security in the country.
The source reports that these were part of the recommendations made by the association at the end of its Quarterly meeting held on Tuesday in Kaduna.
He further reports that NOWACA is a conglomeration of various farmers, youths and cooperative groups in the agricultural value chain in the country.
The Chairman of the Board of Trustees (BOT) of the association, Alhaii Shu’aibu Idris, told newsmen at the end of the meeting that the current high costs of such inputs may discourage many large-scale farmers from farming in 2026.
He said, ” That was why we convened this meeting to brainstorm on the various challenges facing the farmers with a view to proffering workable solutions.
“This is to suggest solutions to the government and the various stakeholders in the agricultural value chain.”
Idris also lamented that farmers in the country were now facing a formidable existential crisis as regards the high costs of such agricultural inputs as against the low prices of food produce.
He cited the cost of a bag of either an NPK or Urea fertiliser that ranges between N70,000 to N80,000.
” However, a farmer now needs to sell between two to three bags of maize to afford a bag of the highly needed input such as fertiliser.
“This problem also affects all the inputs used by the farmers like pesticides, implements and cost of labour, among others,” Idris further decried.
He further cautioned against the likely consequences when the l farmers were dissuaded from producing food including hunger, malnutrition and unemployment, among others.
Idris also called for an urgent stop policy summersaults in the country, especially as regards the age-long agricultural sector that contributes humongously to Nigeria’s Growth Domestic Product(GDP).
He urged, “We are therefore appealing that there should be a rethink so as to accord the sector the top priority attention it deserves by all the tiers of government.
*We are also calling for a rethink to have a look at agriculture beyond a superficial look sequel to its importance.”
Idris also called for the provision of adequate and affordable modern agricultural implements to boost the mechanisation of the sector, citing the availability of easy-to-use tractors currently in other climes.
Similarly, Idris called for the provision of agricultural subsidies, insisting that such was the practice in various developed countries like the USA.
He also appealed to Governors especially those in the North-West to collaborate to improve the funding of the sector hence boost food security.
Idris said that the association was ready to partner with the Federal Government to ensure the realisation President Bola Tinubu’s Renewed Hope Agenda as regards the agricultural sector.
“We will do everything humanly possible to ensure food security in the country and all the attendant possible positive multiplier effects on the country’s economy,” he vowed
