The North-West Agricultural Commodities Association has called on the Federal Government to take urgent, plausible measures to reduce the high costs of farming inputs.

According to the association, this is to bolster the extant efforts to ensure sustainable food security in the country.

These were part of the recommendations made by the association at the end of its Quarterly meeting held on Tuesday in Kaduna.

NOWACA is a conglomeration of various farmers, youths, and cooperative groups along the country’s agricultural value chain.

The chairman of the board of trustees of the association, Shu’aibu Idris, told journalists at the end of the meeting that the current high costs of such inputs may discourage many large-scale farmers from farming in 2026.

Mr Idris also lamented that farmers in the country were now facing a formidable existential crisis, given the high costs of agricultural inputs compared to the low prices of food produce.

He cited the cost of a bag of NPK or Urea fertiliser, which ranges from N70,000 to N80,000.

He further cautioned against the likely consequences when the l farmers were dissuaded from producing food, including hunger, malnutrition, and unemployment, among others.

Mr Idris also called for an urgent stop to the somersault in the country’s policy, especially as regards the age-old agricultural sector, which contributes humongously to Nigeria’s gross domestic product.

Mr Idris also called for the provision of adequate and affordable modern agricultural implements to boost mechanisation in the sector, citing the availability of easy-to-use tractors in other climes.

Similarly, Mr Idris called for the provision of agricultural subsidies, insisting that this was the practice in various developed countries, such as the U.S.

He also appealed to governors, especially those in the North-West, to collaborate to improve funding for the sector and thereby boost food security.

Mr Idris said the association was ready to partner with the Federal Government to realise President Bola Tinubu’s Renewed Hope Agenda in the agricultural sector.

(NAN)