Farmers seek transparency in 10 million phone project

Nigeria Farmers, under the auspices of Commodity Association, have called for transparency in the phone-for-farmers project embarked upon by the Federal Government through the Ministry of Agriculture.
The association said for the project to make meaningful impact, the Federal Government must involve it (the association) in the pricing and distribution of the cell phones and not leave it to the ministry alone.
The ministry had come up with a project to distribute 10 million mobile phones to farmers at a heavily subsidised rate.
National President, Nigeria Cassava Growers Association, Patsor Segun Adewunmi, who spoke on Friday at a forum for farmers in Lagos, said although the project was a laudable one, unless the distribution was done through the Commodity Association, it would be characterised by favoritism, corruption and complaints.
He said politicians could also hijack the initiative.
He said, “You can rest assured that the distribution will be characterised by favoritism, corruption and complaints. We want the pricing, distribution to be done by the association not by the ministry. This is important so that the issue is not turned to a political issue. We, farmers, must be involved to ensure transparency.
“Since we understand the motive of the cell phone project, we have decided to request that the scope of the programme be extended to include capturing the complete profile of each peasant farmer for the purpose of planning for input supply.”
“We wish to go further to adopt the programme of the Nigeria Cassava Growers Association that requires the deployment of the NYSC members to be trained in Agriculture Extension Services. Farmers will be grouped at the ratio of 10 officers under supervisor. Farmer’s full profile will be captured in his identity card and his phones,” Adewunmi said.
He, however, stressed the need for the government to have an alternative means for the farmers to continually power and recharge their phones.
He said, “The ministry must ensure that the phones can always be charged using solar and/or battery phone chargers.”
Adewunmi said various policies targeted by the Federal Government need to consider the plight of the farmers.
The National President, Beans and Sesame Farmers, Mr. Matawalli Baba, said that the phones should be customised.
He said with this, it would carry information such as weather forecast, quality seeds and so on.
The project according to the Minister for Agriculture, Dr. Akinwunmi Adeshina, would help develop the first ever registered database of farmers in Nigeria, doing away with a situation where policy decisions are based on guess work.