The Zonal Chairman of PAN, Gideon Oluleye, who made the appeal in Ibadan, Oyo State, said the challenges facing the industry are enormous, noting that farmers are yet to recover from the effect of naira redesign policy.
“Recently some maize was allocated to farmers by the CBN and the Nigeria Commodity Exchange market, as part of interventions to bring down the soaring prices of maize in the market. About 40,000 metric tons was allocated at the rate of N220, 000 and N225, 000 per ton to farmers, while the farmers were still trying to negotiate a reduction in the price per tonnage, which they perceive as too high for an intervention programme, the two weeks payment deadline issued by the NCX lapsed.
The PAN Chairman disclosed that the marketing strategy to hoard the maize had caused unnecessary scarcity, which had led to high cost of maize in the open market, while revealing that the cost of maize in the Southwest, is currently about N400, 000 – N430, 000 per ton, which is not affordable to farmers.
Gideon, however, advocated for the reduction in the price of soybeans for poultry and livestock sector, while calling on the Federal Government and the CBN to subsidise and grant a short importation for maize and soya beans to bridge the shortfall currently experienced to preserve the sector from collapsing.