The National President of Maize Growers, Processors and Marketers Association of Nigeria, MAGPAMAN, Dr Edwin Uche, has harped on the need for Nigerians to embrace agriculture and maize farming to help grow the Nigerian economy and the value chain system.
Speaking at the MAGPAMAN semi-pyramid exhibition and sensitization programme held at Ibeku High School, Umuahia, Abia State, Dr Edwin Uche said that they are embarking on door-to-door sensitization for Nigerians to embrace profitable Agric business, adding that the Central Bank of Nigeria, CBN, anchor borrowers scheme window is available to farmers to fund the business.
He explained that the CBN is supporting contiguous farmlands whereby a group of farmers cultivate hectares of land, which makes it easy for the CBN to monitor the activities of the farmers for maximum output. Dr Edwin Uche pointed out that farming on individual land is difficult to monitor, saying that the farmer need not be the owner of the land because in agriculture leasing of farmlands is a culture.
The MAGPAMAN national president stressed that there is huge profit in maize farming as the farmer is expected to harvest about four tonnes of maize per hectare, while the cost of doing the farming is about N200, 000 per hectare.
So “that financial window of the CBN makes it possible for community land to be cleared, by clearing a land you are developing a community. We need close to N200,000 to do a hectare, and you are supposed to make four tonnes per hectare…so today maize you make up to N150,000 to N200,000 a tonne. We ensure you are given the best kind of seed and chemical…it’s the anchor borrowers that can do this, so embrace it. Have a better plan and a better life for yourself, he told farmers.
He also said that the farmers need to understand that the CBN fund is not a grant or palliative but a loan that needs to be repaid. “So, if they understand it from that point of business, they will not sell their fertilizer and abandon their farms. We deploy people to guide you, that’s why we are talking about contiguous farmlands today.
