Society Tasks Rivers Farmers On Cooperatives

The Fisheries Society
of Nigeria (FISCOND), Rivers State branch, has urged farmers to belong to cooperative societies, so as to better their future and business.
Making this known while speaking to journalists in Port Harcourt, Thursday, the chairman of FISON, Dr Awotien George, said that the solution to farmer’s insolvency resides in the formation of cooperative societies.
“Banks will be ready and more willing to give loans to cooperative societies because of the belief that they have the ability to repay the loan.
The only way and means to expand food production and ensure food security through farmers in this country is through farmers in this society,” he said.
The FISCON chairman noted that food security was the surest way to checkmate crime in any country, adding that most farmers did not have enough fund to increase their production and go into commercial farming.
George, who is a Senior Lecturer in the Faculty of Agriculture, Rivers State University of Science and Technology (RSUST) noted that the inability of farmers to access loans would affect the Federal Government’s effort to attain food sufficiency.
He said that many banks were not ready to give loans to individual farmers, and that farmers would not be able to grow and expand their productive capacity without adequate funds.
“Even farmers above the small scale margin do not possess the collateral to back up their claim for loans.

Corlins Walter