
By; SANI ALIYU, Zaria
The Nigerian Small Holder Farmers (SHF) are currently going through challenging times due to many threat factors ranging from insecurity, high cost of input, flooding and inaccessibility to sustainable credit.
Arch. Kabiru Ibrahim National President of All Farmers Association of Nigeria (AFAN) who stated this, said the food inflation put at 22% by the NBS is making Nigerians less sympathetic to the plight of small holder farmers because they are continually blamed for the skyrocketing prices of food items.
He said, the SHFs also buy from the same market as everybody else due to the activities of some portfolio farmers who are creating distractions in the food system, actually contributing to sufferinh by the SHFs.
According to him, in the light of all this, those of the fraternity of the pen are being enjoined to reappraise the content of all messages availed to them before disseminating them to the public.
The AFAN President said issues like incessant floods, incidents such as the appearance of birds, banditry, slave labour, inaccessibility of the much needed subsidized input and lack of adequate mechanization should be given maximum latitude, rather than unwarranted propaganda by ignorant portfolio farmers.
“There are many value-added conferences, activities, validations by renown institutions like AUDA-NEPAD, FMARD, AGRIBUSINESS Outfits, currently going on all over Nigeria which should be given coverage and sufficiently articulated by the mainstream media, rather than allowing soft sale social media to spread counterproductive posts.
“AFAN appreciates the effort to harvest and harness agribusiness news in trying to put same on front banner by some respectable journalists like the convener of the Financial Trust Newspaper, who has a pedigree for “discerning journalism” as shown in his performance at Leadership Newspapers, we call on controlled postings on responsible platforms generally.
“The carrier of information determines the attention and patronage of a discerning audience, so I earnestly feel that the needful should be done in promoting value-added only discourse on this cherished platform.”
