AFAN alleges exclusion of genuine Abia farmers in AUDA-NEPAD input distribution * Seeks Otti’s intervention * We deal directly with genuine farmers not factions – Commissioner

AFAN alleges exclusion of genuine Abia farmers in AUDA-NEPAD input distribution

* Seeks Otti’s intervention

* We deal directly with genuine farmers not factions – Commissioner

By Steve Oko

All Farmers Association of Nigeria (AFAN), Abia State chapter, has alleged exclusion of its members on the list of the beneficiaries of the African Union Development Agency–New Partnership for Africa’s Development (AUDA-NEPAD) Smallholder Farmers Initiative.

Abia, one of the seven pilot states selected to implement the continental programme aimed at empowering smallholder farmers with access to finance, improved inputs, training in climate-smart practices, and structured markets, on August 21, officially launched the AUDA-NEPAD Smallholder Farmers Initiative.

Under the initiative, 17,000 farming households across the 17 Local Government Areas of the state will benefit, beginning with an initial 1,000 farmers in the pilot phase.

Beneficiaries will receive training in sustainable farming, support to reduce post-harvest losses, and improved productivity measures.

AFAN accused Commissioner for Agriculture, Dr Cliff Agbaeze, of sidelining its members, and demanded explanations on how he generated the list of the beneficiaries, which it claimed contained fake farmers.

But the Commissioner, in a swift reaction, dismissed all the allegations, insisting that due process was followed in generating the list of beneficiaries.

AFAN also alleged that critical stakeholders including Mayors and Supervising Counsellors for Agriculture were not carried along by the Ministry of Agriculture in the enumeration of farmers in the state.

AFAN Chairman, Mrs Gift Ogbonna, who addressed newsmen in Umuahia, appealed to Governor Alex Otti to quickly intervene on the matter.

She said their members were embarrassed when they enthusiastically showed up at the venue of the the distribution of farm inputs during the launch only to be humiliated by the Commissioner.

“On hearing the announcement over the radio, Abia Farmers trooped in their hundreds with joy as this is the first of its kind in the State, only for the farmers to be met with rejection, sidelined and embarrassed by the Supervisory Ministry, the Ministry of Agriculture.

“Our farmers were denied writing attendance, and they were told that they were not invited, that the Commissioner for Agriculture had an already existing list of farmers that are beneficiaries of this programme.”

She argued that AFAN, as an umbrella/apex body of all farmers, was so critical a stakeholder to be sidelined on issues affecting farmers.

Mrs Ogbonna who claimed that the union is no longer factionalised, also accused the Commissioner of attempts to impose a leadership on AFAN.

The AFAN boss said the essence of the press conference was to avoid anybody with vested interest from undermining the good intentions of Government in rolling out the initiative.

“Abia farmers want their voice heard so that no individual will use his office to sabotage the effort of this God-gven administration.”

“The farmers have resolved to call the attention of His Excellency , the Governor to look into the enumeration exercise by the Commissioner of Agriculture because farmers data is essential to facilitate and enable Government make necessary policies to empower farmers”.

She explained that efforts to engage the Commissioner for a dialogue were rebuffed.

“All efforts of the AFAN State Executive to have a meeting with the Honourable Commissioner, proved abortive.”

AFAN commended Gov Otti for his developmental strides and farmer-friendly policies, pledging its support to his administration.

Corroborating her position, the youth representative, Dr Chibuzor Obiesili; and women.representative in AFAN, Mrs Praise Christiana Oby, respectively, claimed that both blocs were skipped in the programme.

Obiesili wondered how such a programme could be done without accommodating the youths.

” We are worried because the programme is supposed to be for the youths but no youth was captured. Youths are now showing interest in agriculture. So many of them cultivate yams and other crops in bags in their homes. This programme belongs to them but unfortunately, they were skipped.

“Government intends well for the programme and we are grateful. But let the real farmers be captured. We urge the Government to do the right thing and we are ready to work with Government for the success of this programme.”

On her part, Oby, said women farmers in the state were in tears, accusing the Commissioner of humiliating them during the distribution of the inputs.

” I speak with tears on behalf of Abia women farmers. Those who attended the programme were insulted and they left the venue crying.

” We know that our Governor has good intentions but these women returned home crying because one man decided to hold agriculture hostage in Abia. So, we are appealing that the right thing be done.”

The Commissioner who denied any wrongdoing, explained that the decision of the Ministry not to involve AFAN in the farmers’ enumeration exercise was due to the leadership tussle in the union, saying the union has three factions.

“I came here as commissioner and met three factions of AFAN. And my position is that the three factions of AFAN should come together and that we’ll have one unified AFAN that will work for the peace and interest of all farmers in Abia State. And up till now, there are still three factions. They have not been able to resolve their tussle.

“It would be wrong to be working with any particular faction when they have not settled their differences.”

On the claims by AFAN that the leadership tussle among them had been settled during a meeting at the office of the Chief of Staff to the Governor which was also attended by the Commissioner, Dr Agbaeze said he was yet to be communicated that the tussle was over.

“It has not been communicated to me”, he said.

The Commissioner denied generating any fake farmers’ list, insisting that those on the list are genuine farmers verified by the Ministry through a transparent mechanism.

He further said that necessary stakeholders including Council Chairmen were carried along during the farmers’ enumeration exercise..

” Their grouse is that we decided to work not with the association, but directly with genuine and verified farmers. Truth is that whether it’s AFAN 1, or AFAN 2, or AFAN 3, we are talking about Abia farmers.

“So it was important that we worked with verified farmers who are members of the various AFANs anyway. We dealt directly with verified farmers weather or not they belong to any faction of AFAN.”

He, however said more farmers would eventually benefit from the initiative as it was still on its pilot stage.

“The input distribution is on-going. if it hasn’t gotten to members of one AFAN, it will most likely get to them eventually. But it cannot get to all the farmers because in this first phase, we are targeting only 1,000 farmers. For the pilot, or the flag off that we did, it was just for 170 farmers, and we selected 10 farmers from each of the 17 Local Government Areas in the state.

Continuing the Commissioner said:”The good thing we are doing in the Ministry of Agriculture is that we have a mechanism that identifies farmers down to their farm. We took time to develop it and we will do a formal launch so that everybody knows what we are doing.

“We have said it several times: If we cannot do anything very well, we will not do it at all. We should build a credible, authentic, reliable, usable database of farmers. And our first definition of a farmer is that they must have a farmland; they must have a space where they are farming; and they will have coordinates of the farm.

“If I type in your name, I should be able to know where you are farming, and the exact coordinates of what you are farming. I should also be able to know what the size of your farm is.

“Whether or not you belong to AFAN, you qualify. That is part of the problem in the past. People come and position themselves to collect things that are made for farmers and utilize it any way they like. At the end of the day it doesn’t get to the genuine farmers.

“But now, we are doing it in reverse order. We make sure that you are a genuine farmer first of all.

The Commissioner who denied the allegation of try to impose a leadership on the farmers, saying he has no prefered candidate, wondered why the factions could not be united.

“Let them come together. What is the big deal? It is still because of vested personal interests that they are finding it difficult to come together. If they truly represent farmers. Why can’t they come together?

“But let the interest of the farmers be protected. That’s what they should focus on. If someone continues to say: ‘it must be me that will represent farmers’, then we’ll have a problem.

“The point we are making is : Let us make sure that genuine farmers are benefitting. If farmers are benefitting and they belong to Afan 1, 2, or 3, I don’t have a problem. But to a group that pretends to represent farmers and they won’t get to the farmers eventually, that’s what I won’t tolerate.”

The Commissioner further said that Government would not hand over the distribution of the inputs to any association but directly handle it to ensure transparency.

“I’m not likely to hand it over to them to redistribute. I will still go to the farmers and make sure the farmers get it. If you belong to the association, beautiful. If there’s any other way you want us to relate with you as an association, we are open. But the farmers must benefit. That’s my primary goal.”

The Commissioner expressed surprise that the same Mrs Ogbonna would turn around to accuse him of sidelining AFAN members after commending him earlier via a WhatsApp message for accommodating AFAN members.

Steve Oko, Publisher/C.E.O, WaWa News Global. For more information on advert placement and news coverage, contact us on: 08038725600, or via email stevemanofgod2000@yahoo.com; wawanewsglobal@gmail.com Always read WaWa News Global - Your most dependable online news platform for the latest breaking news in Nigeria.

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