# Tags
#Agriculture #News

Motivate farmers to boost food security-Don

Motivate farmers to boost food security-Don

|

By Kehinde Omotayo

Prof Olaniyi Okunlola has called on the Ondo State Government to think of how to motivate farmers to go into production amidst the lockdown to prevent high cost of food.

Okunlola of the Department of Agric Economics and Extension, Federal University of Technology Akure, FUTA, while speaking with The Hope  on the implications of border closure on agriculture, said although government allow food to move, farmers are fearful of increasing production because they are not sure of market.

He said that the cost of getting the goods to the market has gone up since transporters have increased their fares.

His words: “No matter what government is saying, transporters will pay a price before getting the goods across the border. So increase in transport fare has resulted in high cost of goods.

“Another thing is that buyers don’t have much money to buy. Those who are demanding can not afford the amount that suppliers want to sell and suppliers too must make profit so as to be encouraged to produce more”.

Prof Okunlola who said farmers are not planting as they should noted that they must be encouraged adding that getting inputs is also another problem since inputs suppliers have closed shops.

While reacting to the efforts of state government in stemming the spread of COVID 19, Okunlola advised that business activities in neighbourhood markets should be encouraged instead of allowing big markets to open.

He noted that crowd is easier to control in neighbourhood markets than in the big ones.

Related News  Zitadel Films to produce N600m cross-cultural epic, 'Oba Osupa’

The don who said government must be able to understand our culture and the people stressed that some people feed largely on what they get on daily basis hence the need for them to work everyday.

“Things can be regulated instead of having large crowd in one place. For example, go to Oja Oba you will see them conglomerating there, are we not deceiving ourselves, there could be neighbourhood markets where small small business and hawkers can continue to do their business.

Okunlola who opined that shops should be allowed to open for business stated that these shop owners still hang around to sell adding that closing all shops and allowing Oja Oba to open is like deceiving oneself.

“We have to understand our culture and social terrain and adapt that to solve this problem.

There are a lot of things to be done. Well, they are educating the people but there must be sincerity”, he stressed.

Share
Motivate farmers to boost food security-Don

The looming food crisis

Leave a comment

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *