A CLARION CALL TO ALL STAKEHOLDERS BY ARC KABIR IBRAHIM,THE NATIONAL PRESIDENT OF ALL FARMERS ASSOCIATION OF NIGERIA( AFAN) TO HELP MITIGATE THE EFFECT OF COVID- 19 ON NIGERIA’S FOOD SYSTEM.


Good day,

No Farmer, No Nation,
Great farmer, Great Nation.

Today the 24th day of March, 2020 marks about the 6th week effectively since the Coronavirus pandemic began necessitating partial lockdown of some cities around the globe beginning with China Mainland, Eastern Europe, Persia and elsewhere.

The spread of the pandemic to Africa,where healthcare is very weak,portends a dire situation and calls for a proactive action on prevention rather than cure.

It is very sad to note that the pandemic in Africa could be more catastrophic largely due to poverty and lack of medical facilities. 

The effort to stem the pandemic in Nigeria is commendable but to make it sustainably effective we need to put a lot of effort to upscale our Agricultural production.

While the farmers are willing to work assiduously to provide sufficient food for our large population it is important to provide them with a further better enabling environment to be able produce optimally.

It is absolutely necessary to:

1. Provide very good and high yielding seeds at affordable price to the farmers to enable them to be able to produce large quantities of staples peculiar to the various regions.

2. Provide adequate strategic storage facilities for grains and vegetables to mitigate post-harvest loss that could cripple the upscaled production attained.

3. Provide dedicated power to
Agro- industrial estates across the nation to facilitate value addition.

4. Provide diesel at affordable price to enable the wide and effective use of farm machinery especially using diesel fuel.

5. Reactivate the GMP( guaranteed minimum wage) program to facilitate intervention to forestall price turbulence in stables.

6. Subsidize transportation of farm produce to various regions of need across the entire nation.

7. Allow the periodic importation and exportation of essential goods and services across our borders( Air, land and sea).

This call is to all Nigerians and Government alike because we all have a stake in this trying time!

May God guide and protect us all from the global COVID-19 pandemic.

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