Adamawa farmers under the aegis of Farmers Herders Class International (FHCI) have urged the Nigeria Incentive-Based Risk Sharing System for Agricultural Lending (NIRSAL) to extend clemency to its members in respect of unpaid agric loan facility given to its members in 2019 and 2020.
In an interview with newsmen in Yola, national president of the association, Mohammed Ahmed Jada said the plea has become necessary considering the fact that farmers have experienced drought and other pestilences during the last seasons.
“We are pleading with NIRSAL to consider the plight of our members following the daunting challenges they went through during the farming seasons.
” Rain did not start on time and it also stopped very early. This has led our farmers to incur massive losses,’ he said.
Jada added that despite the travails farmers went through, the affected farmers are working hard to mobilize funds to offset the loan noting that some of his members have started selling their personal properties to offset the loan.
“What we want from NIRSAL is more time to be able to offset the loan. In order to disentangle themselves from the debt burden some members have started selling their personal effects to offset the loans,” he said.
He urged NIRSAL to extend another facility to the farmers during the dry season for more intensive activity which will enable his members to generate funds to offset previous loans.
He called on the national insurance company to wade into the challenge to augment the losses noting that farmers in the region have faced a number of challenges including Boko Haram insurgency and drought.
Jada urged the federal government to ensure food security by preventing what he called deliberate destruction of food by some merchants of doom.
“We are calling on the government to stop the activities of some people who buy food from farmers and burn it in order to cause food insecurity in the land.
“That activity is worse than Boko Haram insurgency and banditry combined. I called on the government to ensure that those merchants of death are stopped in their tracks,” he said.