The All Farmers Association of Nigeria (AFAN), Anambra chapter, has urged the state government to devise means to prevent acute food shortage amidst enforcement of COVID-19 lockdown.
Tha AFAN Chairman in the state, Mr Joseph Madubuko, made the call in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) on Friday in Awka.
Madubuko said while it was imperative to encourage adherence to the government’s directives to prevent the spread of the coronavirus, the government must not lose sight of the danger of farmers not cultivating the land now.
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“Now is the peak of planting season especially in Southern Nigeria and it is the same period that the whole place is in lockdown due to the coronavirus pandemic.
“My view is that states should find safer ways of ensuring that the situation does not adversely affect farming activities, because the impact of lockdown implementation will be obvious during harvesting time.
“In Anambra, I have been trying to get the stakeholders, including the Governor and the Commissioner for Agriculture to see with me and we appear to be on the same page now”, he said.
Madubuko said he was aware that some farmers in the hinterlands were going to farm in spite of the lockdown order.
He, however, stressed the need for farmers to observe all precautionary measures against coronavirus pandemic and emphasised that it was real.
The AFAN chairman said that not much would be achieved in food production in the state if the state Ministry of Agriculture was not fully operational.
“Farmers work for hand in gloves with the ministry of agriculture and if the result will be recorded, the ministry must be there for the farmers.
He recalled that the state government had mapped out incentives to boost agricultural activities in the state this planting season.
Reacting, Mr Nnamdi Onukwuba, the Commissioner for Agriculture, told NAN that government would soon make a pronouncement on agricultural activities amidst the enforcement of the lockdown.
“Your thoughts on agricultural activities in the face of COVID-19 lockdown is as good as ours, already.
“We are articulating guidelines on what should be done in the sector; we are just waiting for the governor to speak first.
“All I am advising is for farmers to listen to the media. Very soon the government will take a position on that,” he said.