The Nigeria Farmers Group and Cooperative
Society, on Tuesday urged the Federal Government to set a time line to ban the
importation of maize into the country.
The group’s National Coordinator, Mr Redson
Tedheke, said in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Abuja
that the suspension of the import would protect local farmers and encourage
massive production of the commodity.
According to him, unchecked importation of
maize remains a major threat to local production and President Muhammadu
Buhari’s agricultural revolution drive.
He said local farmers must be protected to
invest more, so that Nigeria would become self sufficient in maize
production.
“The Federal Government must set an immediate
time scale to ensure that maize is not imported within months, like was done
with rice.“You cannot tell people to go to farm and
then allow massive importation of the same thing they are conveniently
producing.
“We feel that is insincerity of purpose, and
we are telling government that if you allow continuous importation of maize,
you are actually working against those you urge to go to the farm.“The Nigeria farmers group, have 2,000
hectares of maize farm across the nation, and it is still cultivating more,” he
said.Tedheke noted that some Agro-business firms
operating in Nigeria were importing large quantities of maize at relatively
‘’low landing cost.’’He also said that that although maize was not
currently on Nigeria’s import prohibition list, there was need to check excessive
importation to protect local producers in their quest to grow the economy from
within.“If the Federal Government does not act fast,
the localisation of maize production will be lost to importers who
may kill local producers, jobs and the economy.“The current price of locally produced maize
is between N130, 000 and N250, 000 per tonne.”Tedheke claimed that a company had shipped in
huge vessels of maize from abroad to be sold at about N40, 000 per tonne.“If this trend is allowed to continue, it will
spell doom for farmers who have battled lack of funding, support and the war
with Army worms in maize farming.”He noted that the cost of imported maize was
relatively low because the government of those countries from where they were
imported provided necessary support to their farmers.The coordinator said if the group is properly
supported, it has the capacity to produce 50,000 tonnes of maize quarterly.“The India government, for example,
subsidised agriculture by providing tractors, seedlings, funding and other
relevant support and that largely reduced the cost of production for its
farmers.“If the Nigerian government does not want the
price of locally produced maize to go beyond a certain level, let it subsidise
its production in the best interest of our economy.”
NAN reports that the group is a rural
community based farming initiative with farms spread across Nigeria and
its mission is `farm to feed Nigeria’ and create job in the process.