Food crisis: FG urged to invest in mechanised farming

From Okwe Obi, Abuja

The Federal Government has been urged to commit more funds to mechanised farming to address the current food crisis in the country.

The stakeholders in the agricultural sector gave this piece of advice yesterday at a one-day seminar on Women for Food Security, in Abuja, with the theme: ‘Sustainability and Development in Empowering Women for Food Security.’

Executive Director of Captain Agri Machinery EXIM LLP, Sunish Shah, said: “If you want to have productivity, you need to mechanize agriculture. It is a very simple logic.

 “As far as Africa is concerned, farmers do not follow the rules of crop farming and do not mechanise farming. They only rely on labour and they do not get the precision and that is why the productivity is very low. And they rely on lands that are not so fertile.”

Also, Chief Executive Officer of Mela Chiyoma Pat Limited, Patricia Stan-Dioka, explained that without the involvement of women and youths, Nigeria would continue to suffer food crisis.

She said: “My inspiration stemmed from the fact that women work tirelessly without getting much. I also noticed that with women we can do so many things. That is what gave me the inspiration.

“With women, we can achieve a lot in our country. And when I look at how the women are piloting it in India, I say if these people can do it in India, we can do it here. I have stayed in India and I know their terrain.

“Again, I am an agriculturist. I read agricultural engineering and food security. We need to sit up because I know what it takes to boost food production.

 “The aim is to eradicate poverty from our country. If you look at our country, you do not need a soothsayer to tell you that there is hunger in the land.

On his part, Executive Chairman, Business Visas and Training Limited, Muhammad Sani Garba, urged Nigerian farmers to borrow experience from the mechanization method of their Indian counterparts.

“You can see that what we have in Nigeria is that smallholder farmers are women. In this current time, we can bring in the youth. If the women succeed, definitely the youth will also be engaged and they will succeed,” he said.