AS high prices of farm inputs remain unabated amid hunger in the land, farmers in Kano State have resorted to selling their roof zinc sheets, wrappers, livestock, and other belongings to buy expensive farm inputs ahead of the wet season farming. This was made known by the Chairman, M.K. Kura Farms, Butalawa, Kura Local Government Area of Kano State, Mukhtar Kura, disclosed in an interview while he lamented that seeds remain the major part of food production, therefore, farmers need serious interventions that would reduce the burden of high cost of farm inputs.
He said: “Seeds, fertilizers, and agro-chemicals are still very expensive, we do not see these prices coming down any soon, and that has been a major challenge to us farmers because we do not have the money to really afford them.
“Especially, the seeds are very expensive. 25 gram of seed, for example, cabbage, there are a lot of varieties of cabbage as it is, a month ago, which was November and early December 2024, it was around N26, 000 per pack, but now, as I am talking it is costingN44,000 per pack, which is really outrageous. So these are some of the things that farmers cannot really afford. I know someone who had to de-roof his house and sold the roofing sheets to buy seeds for planting in his farm. He took the decision to do that so that he can afford seeds. Some sell their wrappers, cows and other belongings to afford the price of seeds, and this the experience in Kano.”
Meanwhile, he (Kura) called on the government to come to the rescue of farmers as the situation farmers find themselves in is pathetic. “The local and State governments are supposed to help farmers in this kind of situation”, he said. However, he alleged that farm inputs distribution is heavily politicized in Kano, where only those who have connections with political officer holders have access to farm inputs. “The problem is not from the planning, it is from the execution. The state government has a provision for supporting farmers with seeds, fertilizers, including water pumping machines, and all others for irrigation.
“The execution of those interventions is where the problem lies. Genuine farmers do not get those farm inputs because they don’t have connections with the local government party chairmen, councilors, commissioners, and other influential people in the government. They determine the people who will get the farm inputs even if they are not farmers, so far as they are their friends, supporters, party members, community members including their political thugs they used during their election who in turn sell these farm inputs to the farmers at exorbitant amounts, and this is really unfortunate, and it from one government to the other we are experiencing this, and it has always been like that over the years and it is a big problem.” Meanwhile, he also counseled that the state and local governments should really monitor the distribution of farm inputs, because farmers are suffering, especially those in the rural areas.
Kano farmers sell roof zincs, cows, others to buy farm inputs – Kura
