Ruth Oginyi
Austin Edeze, a farmer in Ebonyi State, said the food crisis in the country has generally affected the cost of living as the economy is retrogressing on daily bases.
He described the food problem as a general crisis that has affected food production and one of the problems food crisis persists in Nigeria is that Government has not provided access to funding for farmers he, however, advocates that the country should separate the economy from politics.
Speaking with journalists in Abakaliki, E Ebonyi state capital, Edeze explained that the food production in the country was lower than the demand which leads to the crisis.
He decried the sky-rocking of farming inputs in the country without proving access to funding by the government.
“How many people still go to the farm and what encouragement do we have for those who go to the farm? The cost of farm input has gone so high and you know when it affects one sector, it spread to other sectors. And so, it’s a general crisis that has directly affected food itself. Production is lower than the demand, the farmer is not encouraged. You can hardly get a farmer who farmed very well last year going back to farm this year to farm the same potion of land.
“Last year, we bought a liter of herbicides at N1500 but today it is N3700 per liter. Fertilizer at last year was between N11,000 to N15,000 per bag but today it is between N25,000 and N30,000 per bag. You wonder if a farmer is going to break even.
“We are not moving up, we are rather retrogressing. The economy is retrogressive, every sector is retrogressing, and when coupled with the insecurity in the country. In some areas, after all these, you begin to experience devastation by animals. Animals reared by human beings, deliberately enter somebody’s farm, and devastate the entire farm with impunity. Make a noise, it is politicized, complaint, it is politicized and I think now it has affected the food sector, we will be forced to tell ourselves the truth that we are in for trouble”.
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