LAGOS – The South/West Zone of Rice Farmers Association of Nigeria (RIFAN) on Wednesday urged the Federal Government to provide the necessary inputs that would ease their activities during this year’s harvest season.
Mr Olusegun Atho, the association’s president, told the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Lagos that inadequate machineries were the major challenges hindering the harvesting and processing of produce.
Atho noted that most farmers still engage in the manual method of harvesting and processing due to unavailability of mechanised inputs, which increases the cost of production
“Farmers have started harvesting now but the major problem we are facing is the milling of the rice. The milling machines are not available for these local farmers to use.
“Farmers are left with no option than going to processing companies to mill their rice; they also sell directly to these companies,” he said. [eap_ad_1] He also said that the Guarantee Minimum Price (GMP) put in place by government was too high and it could lead to crisis as regards selling of produce.
Atho said the GMP was N6,000 per metric tonne, which is equivalent to 20 bags of rice.
“The Guarantee Minimum Price put in place is not favourable to farmers because with this stated price, most farmers would experience difficulty in sourcing for market.
“Sometimes, the type of rice grain produced by farmers might not be acceptable to the processing company because we have different types of rice grain.
“We have the medium, short and long grains, so if the company wants a particular grain different from what the farmer has produced, farmers are left with no choice than to source for market elsewhere,” he said.
Atho advised the Federal Government to create a medium where rice farmers can access inputs at local government level.
“Government needs to procure more tractors from as low as the local government level, so it can be easily accessible by farmers at each local council,” he said. (NAN)
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