From; Obinna Odogwu, Abakaliki
A random survey carried out in seven states of the federation by a Non-Governmental Organisation, ActionAid Nigeria, has scored farmers in Ebonyi State lowest among other states.
This was because farmers in the state reportedly do not utilise enough agricultural credit services being provided by both government and private institutions.
This was disclosed, on Wednesday, by the group which responsibility, among others, included interfacing between government and the society with a view to ensuring better life for the masses and accountability on the part of the government.
Food and Agricultural Programme Advisor to the group, Azubuike Nwokoye, said this during a forum to disseminate assessment of government expenditure and community score cards on smallholder farmers’ access to agriculture credit services organised by the organisation in Abakaliki.
The research findings, according to Nwokoye, shows that Delta State ranks highest among states whose farmers are utilising agricultural credit services made available to them.
He said the revelation was a product of findings of surveys carried out by the organisation in seven states which included Delta, Kogi, Kwara, Gombe, Bauchi, Ondo, Ebonyi, and the Federal Capital Territory, Abuja. The survey, according to him, was to find out the challenges facing smallholder farmers in accessing agricultural credit services in the country despite dominating the agricultural sector and producing 90% of the output.
The ActionAid Advisor said findings further disclosed that that the impediment often faced by smallholder farmers especially women groups in accessing the numerous agricultural credit schemes that had been existing since 1973 was largely due to non involvement of the farmers in designing and implementation of the schemes.
“Sometimes the processes and criteria are cumbersome even the interest rates are very high and so, most at times, the real intended beneficiaries are not benefiting because many of the schemes are designed without their participation,” he said.
He pointed out that due to the rigorous processes involved in accessing these credit services, the few farmers who managed to get it do so very late such that it would not be useful again for agriculture which he said has a timeline.
“Sometimes, the kind of support services that suppose to come with these credit services such as extension service, access to market and other support services are not provided and most times even when most of them managed to get access to this credit, they don’t get it on time and therefore, cannot be used for agriculture because it has timeline whereby if you do not use it you lose the essence of it.”
He regretted that even smallholder women farmers which make up approximately 80% of smallholder farmers in Nigeria have least access to the credit schemes even as the schemes are mostly hijacked by politicians who are not real farmers.
These, he said, were of grave consequences to food security in Nigeria. Nwokoye advised government among other things to always involve farmers in the design and implementation of agricultural credit schemes for accountability and mutual understanding and should continue to persuade and encourage the formal banking sector with favourable policies, incentives and initiatives to direct both their human and financial resources to harnessing this huge business opportunity of providing agricultural credit to smallholder farmers.
Reacting, the Director of Budget in Ebonyi State Ministry of Finance, Mr. Paul Eze, who was also a participant in the forum, said the state governor, Chief David Umahi, has initiated policies and programmes that have lured every Ebonyi indigene including politicians into embracing farming in the state.
He said the era of farmers having difficulties in accessing agricultural credit services in the state was over as government has been able to identify real farmers; grouped them into cooperative societies and are dealing with them directly. He added that the ongoing credit schemes of the state government to farmers are very accessible and affordable to farmers.
Contributing, a smallholder farmer, Mrs Ibiam Nnenna described the forum as informative and called on relevant authorities to implement the findings of the survey done by ActionAid Nigeria as it would help in resolving the problems of food insecurity in the country.