Farmers’ associations have commended the federal government on the inauguration of 10,000 agro rangers as they call for an increment in the number for the initiative to be impactful.

The All Farmers Association of Nigeria, the Lagos chapter, and the Poultry Association of Nigeria made the call in separate interviews on Tuesday in Lagos.

To boost food security and protect agricultural investments, the federal government deployed 10,000 agro rangers to 19 states and Abuja to offer security to farmers and farmlands.

This initiative, led by the Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps, is part of a broader strategy by the Bola Ahmed Tinubu administration to address the ongoing challenges of food production and inflation in the country.

The deployment, announced by Olusegun Dada, the special assistant to the president on social media, aims to safeguard farmlands and ensure the safety of farmers who have increasingly been targeted by violent attacks.

The deputy chairman of the All Farmers Association of Nigeria, Lagos chapter, Mr Shakin Agbayewa, lauded the initiative but urged the government to deploy more rangers.

“This is a great step in addressing food security in the country. It is a good step because of our farms are not secured, then achieving food security will be like paying lip service.

“This food insecurity can explode and consume the nation if we do not address it. The government is now awake by providing these agro-rangers to protect our farms.

“However, considering the size of the agro-rangers deployed to each state, what is the land capacity they want to secure? It is quite insufficient. Depending on their deployment, are they going to be securing only one or two farms?” Mr Agbayewa said.

He also called for collaboration with local security outfits to ensure adequate security of the farmlands.

“They should go further by partnering with the local security outfits in each community to work with the agro-rangers and cover most areas. The bandits consistently collect tax from the farmers and have made food cultivation difficult. 

“The thing is that 10,000 agro-rangers across 19 states is not enough. With adequate security, our farmers will be motivated to do more and, in the long run, curb insecurity.

“The greatest challenge of our food security and negating government policies is insecurity on our farms. We must be able to farm and secure our farms without threats to farmers’ lives,” he said.

Also speaking, Godwin Egbebe, spokesman for the Poultry Association of Nigeria, called for more agro-rangers for the initiative to be successful.

“It is laudable that the federal government is deploying 10,000 agro-rangers across 19 states. From the aggregate, each state should have about 300 rangers, but the question is, are they equipped with enough firepower to face these bandits terrorising our farms?

“Will they be sufficient to cover all farm areas in their respective states? How sustainable is this initiative? The government should think this through, the agro-rangers should be equipped with hi-tech like drones. 

“Even if they do not have firepower, they will have adequate intel for the military before they come in. Or else the agro-rangers scheme will just be like scratching the surface on insecurity on our farms,” Mr Egbebe said.

On his part, Akin Alabi, agriculture expert and co-founder of Corporate Farmers International, described the initiative as a good step in the right direction towards reducing insecurity.

“The inauguration of the 10,000 agro-rangers is a fantastic initiative, a good step in the right direction towards reducing insecurity on our farmlands.

“It will also help fight against insurgency majorly affecting our farming communities and areas.

“While this may not completely solve the problem of food insecurity because there are still other factors such as climate change, logistics, funding and creating markets, it is laudable,” Mr Alabi said.

He urged the federal government to create a special unit under the security agencies to train, retrain and recruit more young Nigerians interested in joining the rangers.

“This will help provide adequate security for our local farmers. Most of them have been driven to internally displaced persons camp due to the insecurity issues.

“This initiative will help reduce the effect of banditry and insecurity ravaging our farms. We must, however, not play politics with the agro rangers initiative,” Mr Alabi explained. 

(NAN)