Mr Arosanyin, who made appealed in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria in Abuja on Wednesday, said that this would enable farmers to produce and guarantee food security.
“I want to advise both the federal and state governments to grant movement waiver to farmers and farm produce as from the end of April.’’
Mr Arosanyin said that granting them waiver was necessary to avoid possible food crisis after the lockdown.
He explained the farming pattern in the country in the four quarters of the year as follows: “Q1 January to March is for completion of harvest and storage.
“Quarter 2 – April to June – land preparation and planting, Q3 – July to September- late planting and Q4 – October to December – is for harvesting and processing.
“Between November to March, irrigation system is practiced by a few farmers to produce mainly vegetables.”
Mr Arosanyin said in view of the above analysis, it was advisable to allow farmers unrestricted movement to commence farming activities as over 80 per cent of the nation’s food output was rain fed production.
He also advised the Federal Ministry of Agriculture to reactivate the GES and E-wallet programmes to support farmers with farm inputs at subsidised prices
“These efforts will complement the activities of CBN and NIRSAL to improve food production in the country,’’ he said.
He commended government at all levels for the efforts they had put in place to curtail the spread of the Covid-19 pandemic.
Mr Arosanyin said that while enlightenment on appropriate health practices on virus continued, it was imperative to extend the palliatives to cushion the effect of the lockdown to more people.
NAN
