FG steps up agric reforms, slashes prices of farming equipment by 50%, but…

Signals that the current administration is serious in driving economic diversification via agriculture are playing out following disclosure that farming equipment procured by the Federal Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development will be sold to farmers at 50 per cent discount.

Though analyst say such support ought to have come ahead of strategic training and retraining that is powered by crop researches that would come up with innovative seedlings.

The Minister of State for Agriculture and Rural Development, Mustapha Shehuri, in a statement observed that the move was to show government’s determination at improving the production capacity of farmers.

While noting that the gesture was to also help actualise the food sufficiency policy and income generation initiative of the current administration, pundits faulted the move with an argument which queries the rationale of such support when research input on crops on changing farming methodologies do not exist.

They said reducing prices of farming inputs without inclusion of latest research findings on each crop simply means doing the same thing the same way which will not give a different result at the end.