The Agro Commodities Directorate of the All Progressives Congress (APC) Presidential Campaign Council (PCC) has cried out over looming food security challenge occasioned by the cash crunch as a result of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) naira swap policy.

The directorate also complained that farmers are dying as a result of the monetary policy, which is impacting negatively on those of them especially in the rural areas.

Addressing newsmen in Abuja on Sunday, a member of the directorate and National Coordinator, Special Projects, Rice Farmers Association of Nigeria RIFAN, Alhaji Shehu Muazu, complained that the naira redesign policy and its implementation are impoverishing rural farmers with many of them dying.

According to Muazu, “Go to rural areas and see how producers of perishable goods are suffering because nobody is coming to buy. Once you harvest and you don’t sell in 24 hours, it spoils.

“Sincerely, our farmers are dying and something urgent has to be done.”

Addressing newsmen in Abuja on Sunday, a member of the directorate and National Coordinator, Special Projects, Rice Farmers Association of Nigeria RIFAN, Alhaji Shehu Muazu, complained that the naira redesign policy and its implementation are impoverishing rural farmers with many of them dying.

According to Muazu: “Go to rural areas and see how producers of perishable goods are suffering because nobody is coming to buy. Once you harvest and you don’t sell in 24 hours, it spoils.

“Sincerely, our farmers are dying and something urgent has to be done.”

He added: “Rural agriculture in Nigeria cannot survive without cash in the hands of our people. More than 70 per cent of rural Nigeria cannot boast of power, stable telecoms and banking services.

”The cashless policy and petrol scarcity are making rural Nigeria farmers and ordinary Nigerians suffer and become poorer after President Muhammadu Buhari made life so much better for rural farmers in eight years”.

Decrying the policy, the Secretary of the directorate, Hon. Retson Tedheke, said the policy is posing a great threat to Nigeria’s food security which he said is a challenge to cultural, economic and socio-political stability.

“Farmers are already challenged with repaying government and CBN interventions. This will make a bad situation worse.

“We are not against the naira redesign policy and if the federal government believes it is a good thing, we are with the government but the following must be done to aid the rural farming communities nationwide.

“The process should have a one-year lifespan. The CBN must as a matter of national urgency increase allocations to banks nationwide to reduce the immediate pressure and challenges created by this policy and the wrong timing.

“The CBN adopts a phase-by-phase implementation process of the currency swap within one year where the three denominations will be phased out at different times with sufficient supply of the new notes to avoid scarcity of that particular denomination.

“The major farming groups, associations and cooperatives should be involved in considering options for adjustment of the policy and implementing such policies that have a direct impact on their members,” he said.

Painting a gloomy picture of the effect of the policy on Sesame seeds farmers, President, National Association of Sesame Seeds Producers, Hon. Sheriff Balogun, said in two weeks, farmers have lost one year’s worth of hard work.

According to him, his members are losing over N200,000 per tonne. “That is over N100 billion lost by Sesame seed farmers within two weeks. Produce that was sold for N1.2m per tonne is now being sold for less than that and the trend is continuing”, he stated.

Hon. Suzan Kiridi-Lokpobiri,who is the Deputy National Coordinator of the directorate for the South-South and Fatimah Mahmud, said with the current losses in the sector, Nigeria has lost a quarter of its GDP.

“We are not a cashless society. We cannot wake up one morning and then go cashless. We need cash, especially in rural areas. How do you want the rural farmers to survive? The price of feeds is going up and the price of eggs is coming down because the rural farmers just want to sell and get cash.

“Nigeria’s food security is threatened because, at the end of this, farmers won’t be able to go to the farm in the new farming season because what they have produced, they are now selling lower hen the production cost.

“This policy is coming at a bad time, knowing that we just came out of a very bad flood situation where our farmlands were washed away. We were yet to recover from that and the CBN came up with this policy. The PoS agents are not working. ATMs are not working. Farm labourers are paid daily in cash. How do you want them to survive?”, Lokpobiri queried. (The Nation)

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