COVID-19: Farmers want special intervention to avert food shortage

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13 April 2020 10:45 AM GMT
COVID-19: Farmers want special intervention to avert food shortage
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Small holder farmers under the aegis of Association of Small Scale Agro Producers in Nigeria (ASSAPIN), has appealed for special intervention to avert food shortage in the country. Mr Joshua Jonathan, National president of the association made the appeal on Monday in Lafia. Jonathan noted that the outbreak of the coronavirus (COVID-19) global pandemic had […]

Small holder farmers under the aegis of Association of Small Scale Agro Producers in Nigeria (ASSAPIN), has appealed for special intervention to avert food shortage in the country.

Mr Joshua Jonathan, National president of the association made the appeal on Monday in Lafia.

Jonathan noted that the outbreak of the coronavirus (COVID-19) global pandemic had taken a toll on small holders farmers in the country.

According to him, small holders farmers are responsible for a greater percentage of food production in the country.

Jonathan maintained that with the outbreak of COVID-19 and the attendant lockdown at the beginning of the farming season, food crisis loom in the country.

“If nothing is done quickly in terms of special intervetion for our rural poor farmers, because the farming season is just starting, there would be food crisis.

“This is because if you can’t produce and you finished what you had produced, then there would be serious problem,” he added.

He urged government at all levels to initiate programmes targeted at small holder farmers for the provision of farm inputs such as improved seeds, fertilizers and agro chemicals.

The association president also suggested that farmers and agro chemical dealers should be exempted from the government’s restriction order to enable them go to their farms.

Jonathan maintained that farming activities does not promote large gathering, hence the issue of social distancing to curtail the spread of the virus would be upheld by farmers.

He appealed to farmers and all citizens to take precautionary measures by government and relevant authorities seriously as COVID-19 is real.

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