Poor storage, bad roads threaten food security – Farmers’ chairman

Nigeria’s aspiration for sustainable food security is said to be threatened by insufficient food storage facilities and a poor rural-urban road network.

Mr Adewumi Abas, the Chairman of the Oyo State All Farmers Association of Nigeria (AFAN), stated this while speaking with the our correspondent in Ibadan on Monday.

Abas called for government assistance to save farmers from the horror of watching their perishable goods, such as tomatoes and peppers, being destroyed helplessly due to inadequate storage facilities.

According to him, some perishable crops must be harvested almost every three days, whether there is a market for them or not.

“Once the quality of such crops starts diminishing, their market value will start declining, leading to shortages for farmers.

“This, among others, contributes to the high cost of food in the country.

“Our prayer is that the government would invest in storage and food preservation facilities; farmers’ associations will gladly key into the project through acquisition or the rental of such facilities,” he said.

The chairman also lamented that the nation’s poor rural-urban road network has been a major excuse for transporters to exploit farmers during the harvest period.

In addition, he said, farmers were confronted with the inadequacy of vehicles to get their crops to markets at the appropriate time.

According to him, transporters always avoid bad rural roads, claiming that the roads can damage their vehicles.

“Most times, farmers face the task of using their heads to carry harvested crops to nearby locations where vehicles can reach and take them to the markets.

“This always leads to double expenses because labourers who would carry the goods with head pans will collect money as well as the drivers.

“This has been one of the factors reducing farmers’ profit margin, adding to the cost of foodstuffs in the market because farmers would definitely spread all the expenses on the market price,” he said.

Nevertheless, he lauded the Oyo State Government for improving security, especially for farmers in the state’s rural areas.

Abas noted that the Western Nigerian Security Network, codenamed ‘Amotekun’, and the NSCDC Agro-Ranger Squad had brought relative peace across rural areas in the state.

He, however, urged the government not to relent on farmers’ security, particularly during the dry season when herdsmen usually move around in search of green grass for their animals.

The chairman also lamented that many farmers could not recoup their investment due to the sharp drop in produce prices.

He attributed this to the government policy that permitted mass importation of foodstuffs with little or no consideration for local farmers.

He noted that many cassava farmers lost their investments in the current harvest season.