Farmers in Oyo state are lamenting over the drop in the sale of food items due to hike in prices caused by restriction measures to curtail the spread of COVID-19 pandemic.
The All Farmers Association of Nigeria (AFAN), Oyo state General Secretary, Mr David Ogundele made this known in an interview with our correspondent on Wednesday in Ibadan.
Ogundele said that people in urban areas were badly affected because of the restricted movement while some perishable items such as fruits and vegetables were being destroyed.
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He said that the present situation of things in the country had crippled all the activities of AFAN in Oyo state in particular and Nigeria in general.
The AFAN Secretary said that this was as a result of the pandemic, just when farmers were preparing for their planting seasons and the association’s national elections.
“Virtually, there is hike in prices of all goods; before a bag of rice was sold for N18,000 but now it is N22,000 to N24, 000, a milk cup of garri that sold for N150 is now N250, three tubers of yams sold for N1,200 is now N2,000.
“There is nothing we can do but to cope with the government’s directives, we thank God we have not recorded any casualty among our members.
“All farmers look up to the government at all levels to join hands and wash away this virus from our society, even as we pray and hope on God,” he said.
Ogundele stressed the need for government to provide farmers with agricultural inputs such as tractors, fertilisers, herbicides, insecticides and others to ease and secure food production.
“We are still on land preparation for wet season but some areas where we have stable rain, planting has commenced and we call on government to always assist us to clear bushes using bulldozers.
“Giving us farm inputs without addressing this vital issue cannot take care of farms expansion and encourage youths to venture into farming.
“As we are about to embrace Anchor Borrowers Programme (a Federal Government’s programme aimed at empowering farmers through CBN), the bank will provide all the expenses but each participant will pay 5 per cent equity contribution.
“We will be very grateful if government can pay on behalf of the participants since they are going to get their money back later,” he said.
Ogundele urged farmers not to rush into planting now but to wait till the rainy season starts fully.
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