Proprietor of Raymos Gwanah Farms Limited in Illah, Oshimili North Local Government area of Delta State, Mr Raymos Gwanah, has called for more government’s support for farmers to enhance food production.
Gwanah made the call in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in his farm at the Benin Owena River Basin, Illah.
He urged government to provide tractors for farmer as well as access roads to farm settlements to boost production.
He said with such infrastructure in place, more private individuals would be encouraged to venture into farming and produce more food.
He noted that rice cultivation was herculean, adding that mechanisation of farming remained the only way of ensuring mass production of food for consumption and exportation.
The proprietor said the river basin authority had few tractors and with its current scope of irrigation, farmers could not do dry season planting.
Gwanah, however, said his farm had placed order for the importation of 10 water-pump-fitted tractors to enable it to go into all season farming and cultivate more hectares of land.
“What you are seeing here today is 102 hectares of land ready for cultivation; in 2012, we cultivated 30 hectares of rice, but flood washed it away. “This year, we acquired two brand new tractors, a sprayer and other implements and cultivated 60 hectares. During the harvest, we had challenges with threshing, winnowing, bagging and drying.
“But by the grace of God, today, we have a multifunctional machine which harvests, threshes and winnows, and we are currently expecting a grain dryer.
“However, one big challenge we have is lack of access road to the farm to enable us to evacuate the produce after harvest.
As you have experienced, it is difficult to get to the farm especially during the rainy seasons,” he said.
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