Agriculture: FG, States Urged To Provide Storage Facilities

Chairman, EMBEE Farms, Kaduna, Alhaji Murtala Muhammad has urged the federal and state governments to provide storage facilities to enable farmers to preserve their perishable goods.

Muhammad told newsmen yesterday in Abuja that the provision of storage facilities would help reduce the cost of production.

He noted that farmers who produced perishable goods, lost millions of naira annually due to the lack of storage facilities.

“We have big orchards where we grow mangoes and oranges which we supply to Chivita Nigeria Limited, makers of Chivita Juice in Lagos.

”Our major problem is the lack of storage facilities to keep these goods before and during transit.

“I really pity those who transport tomatoes and other perishables goods from the northern part of the country to the eastern and western parts, because they loose so much money in transit from their farms to the market,’’ he said.

According to him, produce such as tomatoes last for a maximum of three days after harvest before it begins to spoil.

Muhammad urged the government and the private sector to collaborate and assist farmers by providing them with facilities to preserve their produce.

He said that both the government and private sector practitioners would generate revenue by providing storage facilities.

The chairman also urged financial institutions responsible for disbursing agricultural loans to farmers to reduce the high interest rate and stringent conditionality for small-scale farmers to access loans.

“I am yet to understand what the banks are doing with over N200 billion meant for farmers.

“By now farmers should be thinking of refunding the loan not struggling to get what is rightly theirs,’’ he said.

He also urged the government not to under-estimate the importance of small holder farmers, whom he said, produced over 70 per cent of the foodstuffs consumed by Nigerians

“It is rather unfortunate that we spend billions of naira to import foodstuffs which Nigeria can produce and even export,’’ he said.

He stressed the need for the government to provide farmers with fertiliser throughout the year and not at the end of the farming season.

“We have several farmers who are into irrigation farming and who need fertiliser during irrigation period and during the rainy season,” Muhammad said.