The All Farmers Association of Nigeria (AFAN) has slammed the Federal Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development (FMARD) over the ongoing National Council on Agriculture and Rural Development (NCARD) Meeting taking place in Jos, Plateau State.
The Acting Public Relations Officer, AFAN, Salisu Mukhtar described the meeting as ill-conceived, stating that the convening of the meeting designed to implement annual agricultural plans in the middle of the rainy season will only result to waste of time and resources.
The 45th session of the National Council on Agriculture and Rural Development, with the theme “Strengthening Agricultural Value Chains Development Process for Food Security and Economic Development”, was held to enable stakeholders to fine-tune policies to better agricultural practices in the country.
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Mukhtar stated that the five-day meeting, which included key stakeholders from the federal, state, and private sectors, was necessary due to the inexperience of organizing such a meeting in September, when a significant percentage of farmers across the country are already expecting to harvest some of their crops.
“The reality of an annual National Council on Agriculture (NCA) in Nigeria is that it is normally convened before the onset of the rainy season to get state governments, especially across party lines, to key into the Federal Government’s plan for the forthcoming planting season as an avenue designed purely for agenda setting and reappraising milestones.
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“The annual NiMET weather forecasts and the annual flood warnings from the National Hydrological Services Agency always come at the right time for the farmers to prepare for the planting season. The annual NCA this year is being convened in September in Jos, Plateau State, simply and evidently to expend budgetary allocations by the FMARD since it is pretty too late in coming.
