Peter Samuel
Farmers in Ebonyi State, South East, Nigeria have said that widespread adoption of mechanized farming in Nigeria will lead to high yields and the attainment of food sufficiency in the country.
They said it is important for many farmers in the country to utilize mechanized system of agriculture in producing their crops and preserving their seedlings for every agricultural season.
According to them, if Nigeria doesn’t put in more efforts through mechanized farming, for massive production of food, it will not be able to produce enough seedlings for planting each year.
They said this would further make the country a dumping ground for expired seedlings from other countries of the world.
They explained that in trying to catch up with the yearly planting season, the country would start importing expired seedlings from other countries, thereby impeding its vision for food security in the country.
They called on the federal government to ensure urgent food sufficiency, in order to prevent the country from becoming a dumping ground for fake, expired and adulterated farm inputs in Africa.
The farm inputs refer to human-managed resources such as seedlings, fertilizers, pesticides and herbicides.
A notable farmer from Abakaliki Local Government Area of Ebonyi State, Chief Michael Udenwe hinted that with the massive practice of mechanized farming across the country, there will be food sufficiency, which will lay to rest the issue of opening of the borders for the purchase of grains from other countries.
“And mind you, that those imported grains, some of them have stayed up to 10 years in storage, which is no more healthy for consumption. But to be sincere they see Nigeria as a dumping ground.
“But if we have food sufficiency here, we will eat what we produce, which is fresh and healthier for us. Note that if you buy cheap farm inputs, you may see yourself in the hospital and that’s another case altogether”.
He stressed that the introduction of mechanized farming has helped in the reduction of manual labour, especially among women.
“It helped much because before now, we based our farm activities only on manual system of agriculture. By this time, if you see our women who clear our swamps, and weed our rice, you won’t recognise them because they look like people coming from the graveyard.
“But with the use of modern equipment now, if a farmer introduces his or herself, you will think that the person is a civil servant, because everybody looks neat. The use of hoe and cutlass, which our great grand father used is no longer in vogue. And this is the reason our youths have abandoned agriculture.
“Modern machines like tiller machine, should be available and affordable to peasant farmers, this makes the work easier. Chemicals like herbicides and pesticides, also make farm work easier.
“For the threshing of rice, before now it use to be manually done. Like the women will come in the morning and use sticks to beat the rice from morning till evening and if you see them on the road, they look as if they are from the forest but now, with the use of threshing machines, what eight women can do in a day, the machine does it with ease.
“So, the use of modern farm implements help farmers and helps our produce to yield more. Farmers have been waiting for the federal government to help them but help didn’t come and so they are doing things on their own. And so those you see making use of threashing and tiller machines, bought it.
“IFAD Ebonyi State did a good job in the beginning of this farming season. They distributed both the tiller and threshing machines as well as solar powered irrigation pump. So, IFAD helped much this year.
“Meanwhile, I have not seen anybody that said he or she has benefited from the federal government in this direction. If farmers go into the use of these modern machines, the issue of food sufficiency will be tackled.”
Also, a seed entrepreneur and lawyer based in Ebonyi State, Mrs. Edu Elizabeth Uzodinma, praised the introduction of mechanized farming in the agricultural sector explained saying it helped increased the rate of her farm yields.
“At the point of land preparation, I use tractors and power tiller on my farm. I adopted the use of herbicides instead of cutting grasses. During harvest, I make use of thresher and reaper in cutting them, and then thresher in threshing them. And during storage, the rice is properly kept because rice is like a baby, it contains embryo. It should be airy in your warehouse.
“My harvest has grown from zero to at least 90 percent output. With the use of modern equipment like the GPS, I find out the size of the land I am cultivating annually. ”
Uzodinma further stated that her use of mechanized farming implements have helped her to determine her profits and loss in agro-business, number of inputs to deploy on her land, and keep proper records of all her day to day activities.
“And that determines the number of inputs I am going to procure and apply. If you are not applying modern form of agriculture, your outputs are usually not encouraging. I am into agric business. The difference is incomparable. Those not into mechanized system of agriculture cannot adequately keep record of what they are doing on the farm but I do.
“Record keeping is part of the modern technology that I have adopted because when you keep records, you know the output and input, whether you are gaining or losing.”
She called on both local and state governments to carry farmers along during their budgetary allocations and decision-making processes, in order to give farmers a sense of belonging in the scheme of things.
“Both state and federal governments should put us in their budget and we should be part of their policies and decision-making process. So that we can make inputs as to what we want. I want to advise them to ensure that farm equipment get to the farmers and not the political class.
“And the distribution of inputs should go directly to the farmers. Last year, I witnessed the federal government sending text messages to farmers to go and collect their farm inputs like maize, rice, cassava and through their phone messages; the farmers go to redemption centres to carry their inputs.
“This year, we have not seen such and if it comes, it should be distributed on time and these machines should come because farmers are tired of manual system of agriculture. These machines should be subsidised, so that poor farmers can afford it.
“I am into rice production and seed multiplication. I am a seed entrepreneur. I adopted the use of improved varieties for my rice seedlings. Agriculture is like computer, garbage in garbage out. What you give is what you will expect.
“When I first adopted the use of improved varieties, I followed it by good agronomic practices like site selection, land preparation, and pest management. These activities cannot be perfectly done manually. The use of mechanized system of Agriculture has to do with the use of equipment in place of manual labour.”
