High cost of farm inputs and animal grazing have been identified as parts of obstacles to food sufficiency in the country.
Two farmers, Mr. Bamidele Alonge from Ijero-Ekiti and Mr. Yemi Kolawole from Ise-Ekiti stated this while speaking with Radio Nigeria Progress FM.
Mr. Alonge said prices of inputs such as fertilizer and agro chemicals have risen beyond the reach of peasant farmers.
He lamented that the price of fertilizer had risen from N26,500 to about N50,000, stressing that eight bags would be needed for an hectare of farmland and wondered how a farmer could break-even.
On his part, Mr. Kolawole emphasized that herders have continued to graze their animals on farms, thereby destroying crops.
He said cattle ate his over twenty thousand heaps of cocoyam, plantain, bananas and cassava, but could not secure justice over the destruction.
The two farmers however called on government at various levels to subsidize prices of fertilizer, agro chemicals as well as ban animal grazing, to address the increasing prices of foodstuffs in the country.
They also advised goverment to ensure that necessary assistance get to the real farmers, rather than political jobbers.
The farmers condemned the policy of directing farmers to come to the state capital for assistance, stressing that practising farmers could be located and identified on their farmlands.
Recently, Governor Biodun Oyebanji of Ekiti State called on Nigerians to have a rethink and shift their attention to farming, in a bid to improve food production in the country.
