…Says, “Members now farm along the road.”
by Achadu Gabriel, Kaduna
The President, Maize Association of Nigeria (MAAN), Alhaji Bello Abubakar Annur, has raised alarm that, maize produce is affected by about 10-20 percent due to security challenges in the northern region.
Alhaji Annur, who disclosed this at the end of a seminar organised for newly-elected officials of the association on how to do administrative job in Kaduna, however, stated that despite the insecurity, the produce this year is better than last year by 10 percent.
He lamented thus: “Actually, everybody knows there is insecurity in this area but despite that, we are still producing maize. But some of our farmers were not able to evacuate what they produced because of the insecurity. And some of them have started farming along the road and have now left the farm because of insecurity.
“Actually, it has affected out production about 10 to 20 percent. But we still produce more than what we produced last year. If you look at the programs going on now, especially Anchor Borrowers program, it’s part of the way of engaging the youths, especially women and girls, because it’s providing the job opportunities and also training the farmers on how to be self-independent in terms of agriculture.
“And then when this programs is sustainable, all our youths will get employment or job that will give them independence and contribute to the growth of economy in Nigeria,” he said.
On while this is coming about the time they are going to unveil maize pyramids in Kaduna, the MAAN president said, “You can see we have almost finished the formation of the pyramids, and it’s looking attractive to more and more people, especially the youths.
“This is why I said, if we sustain it this ways, it will attract our youths to be self-independent in agriculture. We have formed about 21 pyramids, which you can see physically on ground, which last year we had formed only ten percent.
“You can see that there is an improvement. So, this shows that we can tell Nigerians and world that we have reached a point that we can depend on our own in terms of maize production in Nigeria,” Alhaji Annur stated.
