By Nurudeen Alimi
FARMERS Community Association in Ekiti State has urged the Ekiti State Government to provide soft loans to scale-up production during this year’s farming season. The Chairman of the association, Mr Olatunji Ayegbusi, made the appeal on behalf of members, in Ikole-Ekiti last weekend, while briefing newsmen on the need for government intervention to solve agricultural challenges.
He said the farmers needed urgent government intervention to survive the current economic challenges facing the state and Nigeria as a whole.
Ayegbusi urged the state government to partner with foreign investors and private companies to empower them with loans and fertilizers to improve agricultural produce in the state.
He stated that: “On Behalf of the association in Ikole-Ekiti, I want to appeal to our governor to empower us by giving us soft loans to boost agricultural produce to reduce purchase from other states. “The Federal Government has been giving out fertilisers to farmers across the federation but our own fertilisers are being diverted; we don’t have money to set up irrigation system to boost our productivity in our various farms.
“Farmers in other states are doing better than us because their state governments intervened and backed them with adequate funds to enhance their productivity and they are doing well. We are suffering in the hands of insecurity and the farm implement that we need to make our work easier are too expensive to procure in the market.”
He also pleaded with the state government to rescue them and set up budget for agriculture and empowerment of farmers in the state.
Ayegbusi also urged the state governor, Biodun Oyebanji, to give priority attention to the welfare of the registered farmers association. He added that incentives meant for them should be directed to the association’s chairman and not to any government officials in the state.
