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Empowering rural farmers for sustainable development (1) By Michael Adedotun Oke
Immediate intervention is crucial to address the challenges faced by farmers in areas with inadequate infrastructure such as poor roads, hospitals, schools, and other essential facilities.
The neglect of these farmers, who work tirelessly without reaping significant rewards, is unacceptable. In many farming communities, disjointed development and underdevelopment are prevalent issues that need urgent attention.
To tackle the high food prices in the market, it is essential to accelerate development projects in these farming areas. This will not only aid in community development but also reduce the high rate of migration from rural to urban areas. Recognizing the economic contributions of these farming communities is long overdue.
Nigeria is desperate for progress
It is disheartening that, up to today, there are no appropriate strategies to develop the country, especially those focused on farming areas. This would address issues of insecurity that have caused the nation’s high food costs and unemployment.
Farmers find it difficult to cultivate land and make profits. Furthermore, the essential issues surrounding the many agricultural problems and challenges that farmers currently face require substantial human attention, and the various actions that must be taken must be timely, reasonable, and extremely necessary. They must be capable of handling the stresses of modern agricultural practices.
What everyone is dealing with is the skyrocketing cost of fuel, which has devastated agricultural production and complicated the process of transporting any kind of agricultural product from rural to urban areas. Farmers must overcome various obstacles and issues in life, which must be investigated and resolved in their lifetime.
While there is a lot of temptation to ignore the documented issues addressing farmers’ practices and concerns, some policies to address and allow farmers’ practices are still not available and have yet to be implemented. Doing so will benefit more than just the farmers; the public will also benefit from the government’s actions and help the nation’s economy grow overall.
Although there are several agricultural risks and uncertainties that deter people from entering the field of agricultural production, there are better lessons to be learned from this.
The low level of agricultural production and the low supply of agricultural products in most farming communities, coupled with the high cost of food in the markets, both have a negative impact on the sector and have slowed its growth. These issues need to be documented.
The sooner this issue is resolved, the better it will be for the planet and will help increase agricultural farming activities in the country. This will result in all forms of expected agricultural development.
The government can take proactive measures to carry out calls to action, expedite policy that will increase community-level production, attract foreign investors, encourage product production and marketing, and create a multitude of employment opportunities, grassroots empowerment, community empowerment, and long-term national advancement.
While the distribution of food is vital and helping peasant farmers to produce, the best ways to accomplish this are by increasing agricultural production, constructing silos and roads, timely distribution of inputs, establishing processing centers and making funds available.
Others include; providing extension services, and setting up warehousing systems to store food while they are in season and ensure their equitable preservation and distribution. Timely action on these fronts must be addressed promptly to spur economic growth.
It is concerning that no one is even considering helping the peasant farmers in the country. There are numerous developments that are not aimed at them, which seems out of place at this point in time. The earlier the day and night job for the unrecognized farmers is addressed, the better the world will be.
This calls for the serious implementation of agricultural policy, development initiatives, and the creation of means for the farmers. They require several forms of assistance from the government, which will significantly aid in the overall development of the nation.
(To cont next week)
Michael Adedotun Oke is a
Project Facilitator, Talent Upgrade Global Concept, Michael Adedotun Oke Foundation, Plot 232 Kaida Road, Old Kutunku, Gwagwalada, Abuja, Nigeria
maof2020@gmail.com
+23408027142077
