NALDA Seeks Herders, Farmers’ Dialogue to Boost Agriculture

James Emejo in Abuja

The Executive Secretary, Chief Executive, National Agricultural Land Development Authority (NALDA), Paul Ikonne, has said the agency is currently working to bring herders and farmers to the table with a view to resolving issues that could hamper food security going forward.

He said the move was aimed at considering the interests of both parties as well as create a conducive environment for their businesses without the recurring fictions observed in recent times which had stalled agricultural intervention programmes by the government.

This is just as the NALDA boss also said it has commenced the process of establishing an integrated farm estate on the 1,200 hectares of land it just recovered and reactivated in Ekiti State.
The farm estate boasts of an already existing 50 hectares of Cashew farm, storage and a processing facility that would be reactivated and upgraded by the authority.

Ikonne, had during an engagement with residents of the Okeako/Irele Ekiti in Ikole Local Government Area of the state, assured the farmers that the authority is back and better and will work assiduously to ensure that the farmers get all they needed to farm and produce, beginning with an access road into the farm.

But, during a with the traditional ruler of the community, His Royal Highness, Oba Emmanuel Omopariola, the Alajowa of Ijowa, Ijowa Ekiti, the NALDA was told that insecurity remained the major problem facing the farmers in the community.
Omopariola, said farmers in are unable to recoup incomes invested on their farms because herders go into their farms with cattle that eat up crops already matured for harvest, a situation which according to him, had made life unbearable for the farmers.

He said: “At present, what we facing is the question of security, the insecurity is so enormous that nobody around can solve it for us, earlier this year, our cashews produced very well but at the end of the day farmers ended up not having any form of financial benefits as the herders came at night with their cattle that ate up the matured fruits”.
He added that as a result, farmers no longer farm crops like maize, sorghum, cassava and yam while the people now travel miles to buy them at exorbitant prices.

While appealing for urgent measures to address the situation, he pointed out that whatever the NALDA lofty programmes are for the community, the issue of herders invading farms must be addressed in order to be successful.

In his intervention however, Ikonne, said:“We are here to make sure that this abandoned estate comes back to life, your farm produce that you use to take out, you will still take them out to sell but this time it will be fully processed because whatever we going to produce on this farm will also be processed.

“We will put processing plant too so that we can add value to what we produce, this will also help your youth be engaged because agriculture is the way to go.

“The solution is, how do we come together to do our businesses so that it would benefit all of us? That is what NALDA would do, I believe that the herders want their cow to be healthy and fattened so they can sell and make profit, what this means is that they also want a conducive environment to do their business.”