The All Farmers Association of Nigeria (AFAN) Kano State Chapter, has advised farmers not to patronise unregistered and unrecognised for the purchase of agricultural inputs.
The state AFAN Chairman, Alhaji Faruk Rabi’u, gave the advice in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) on Friday in Kano.
He said the advice was necessary so as to avoid using fake and adulterated inputs on their crops or farms as there are a lot of fake agricultural inputs in circulation in the market.
“We are advising farmers especially those in the rural areas to ensure that they buy pesticides and other inputs from genuine agro-allied companies to avoid fake and adulterated products, ‘’ Rabi’u said.
He said using adulterated and fake inputs was most of the time responsible for low yield and poor productivity.
Rabi’u said the association planned to establish a farmers’ shop (Kantin Manoma) in each of the 44 Local Government Areas (LGAs).
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He noted that the farmers’ shop is part of efforts to check the activities of some unpatriotic dealers who sell fake and adulterated inputs to farmers, especially in the rural areas.
“As I am talking to you, no fewer than 11 of such shops have been established and stocked with genuine pesticides, herbicides and other inputs being sold to farmers,’’ Rabi’u said.
On fertiliser, the AFAN chairman called on the farmers to visit the various stores of the Kano Agricultural Supply Company (KASCO) nearest to them to purchase the commodity at N5,500 per bag.
“I want to use this opportunity to tell farmers in the state that there is enough fertiliser being sold at the government’s subsidised price of N5,500 per bag.
“The commodity is available at all the designated KASCO stores and its headquarters in Kano no matter how many bags a farmer wants to buy,’’ Rabi’u said. (NAN)
