put your money where your mouths are

 Growing up in a community where more than 90% of the people were farmers, I subliminally looked past the true value of farming. Every household owned a piece(s) of land for cultivation. Given the type of seasons that we have in the northern regions, the most suitable crops to cultivate are dominantly; corn, millet, groundnut, rice, beans, yam, sweet potatoes, and some vegetables. Domestic birds such as chickens, doves, ducks, Guinea fowls, and animals like sheep, goats, and even cattle are regular features of so many households. We grow so much of what we eat and sell the surplus to cater to other needs. Whatever your profession is, you still have to do some amount of farming to complement it. It could be crop farming or rearing livestock or both, you just can’t escape being a farmer in its entirety.

 

Perhaps it was due to the banality of the farming profession in the community or I just was too young to tell things apart, I did not attach any significance to farming. Today, I am so appalled as I re-evaluate the true value of the farmer to the nation in proportion to what the nation gives back to the farmer. If for nothing at all, the government should make fertilizer readily available and affordable for farmers at all places across the country. Fertilizer because it’s the most essential product to the farmer. The amount of politics and chicanery that goes into fertilizer distribution is unbelievable. Farmers in my community scratch and claw to get fertilizer for their crops while several tons of fertilizer are smuggled out of the country to our neighboring countries. And some of the farmers get stalled by “unnecessary” bureaucracy to secure the rest of the fertilizer left for them. The net result of all these is scanty yields.

 My firsthand recount of the unfair treatment meted out to farmers is a mute telling of how unattractive farming can be. And I am certain young people who hail from places like mine will have similar accounts to give. As our country depends heavily on agriculture, a lot of pragmatic measures should be put in place to make the “youth in agriculture” campaign worthwhile. While the government is placing a ban on some agricultural products, it should speed up efforts to boost local production to avoid food shortages in the country.

 

 On this note, I would like to commend the government on the planting for food and jobs initiative, among the other programs that are focused on promoting and sustaining agriculture in the country. Another praiseworthy measure is the One District One Factory initiative. The setting up of tomato factories will save a lot of farmers from losses and at the time feed the country with local products.

 

However, there is a huge deficit of support for farmers on the part of the government that needs attention. It’s one thing to secure resources for farmers and another to ensure the farmers actually get them. The government should investigate the smuggling of fertilizer out of the country and ensure the culprits are apprehended and dealt with.

 

As we celebrate and appreciate the good works of our farmers, let everyone put their money where their mouths are and support farmers to continue to feed the nation but not at their own expense. Ayeekoo to all farmers!!!