The Acting Director of National Centre for Agricultural Mechanization (NCAM), Ilorin, Dr. Yomi Kasali has called for governmental subsidies for Nigerian farmers purchasing agricultural equipment.
While speaking during a skill acquisition and empowerment training for youth on welding and fabrication of agro processing equipment in Ilorin, he said agriculture could contribute meaningfully to the nation’s Gross Domestic Products (GDP) if the sector was mechanized and made such equipment affordable to average Nigerian farmers.
“Nigerian farmers unlike their counterparts in other developing nations of the world, are still employing primitive tools to till the soil, yet they produce about 70 per cent of the nation’s food production. But to make agriculture contribute significantly to the country’s GDP, the country needs to mechanize its agriculture.
“To achieve this, the level of adoption, accessibility and affordability of low cost equipment should be increased. Increasing these levels means there should be an increased in fabrication of these equipment which would reduce drudgery and also improve productivity.”
Over 80 youths drawn across the nation’s six geo-political were sponsored to the intensive two weeks training programme by the Federal Ministry of Agriculture (FMA). The states’ ministries of agriculture and the Agricultural Development Programs (ADPS) assisted the FMA getting the right youth for the empowerment training.
Kasali disclosed that the trainees at the end of the programme are expected to transfer the acquired skill to other youths in their localities towards making same available across the nation.
He further stated that to increase accessibility and affordability of the equipment to farmers, the Federal Government should subsidize the agro-machineries “as it is done in the General input subsidy such as seed, herbicide and so on”, in order to make them affordable for the farmers to acquire.
He also advocated for the farmers to organise themselves into veritable cooperative groups to acquire loans, and to share capital and inherent risk in the agricultural sector.
, Ilorin, Dr. Yomi Kasali has called for governmental subsidies for Nigerian farmers purchasing agricultural equipment){kind=link}