The Oyo State chapter of the Rice Farmers Association of Nigeria (RIFAN) says that land that can support lowland rice farming remains a significant challenge for farmers.

RIFAN chairman in the state, Samuel Akinade, who spoke on Sunday, said rice farming in Oyo had been a good experience except for the unavailability of lands.

“It is the land that I have that I can boast of. For now, I don’t know whether the government has enough land for rice farmers because none has been made available to use, especially manure fields,” he said.

Mr Akinade added, “When we detect a land somewhere that will be good for rice, we as farmers will go to the family to negotiate with them. If they like they give us, if they don’t like they say no.”

He stressed that though parcels of land could support upland farming in the state, the availability of lowland for rice farming has been scarce.

“But we have vast land for rice in Oyo State if it is for upland rice farming. Any land that can sustain maize and cassava, it can sustain upland rice also.

“There are many lowland rice varieties and many upland rice varieties as well. You will now pick the one that is high yielding suitable for the land you have acquired,” he said.

On insecurity, the chairman said the issue of insecurity on farms had reduced with the efforts of the Amotekun Security Network and farmers themselves.

“The issue of cow grazing subsided last year but we are not saying that it has been eliminated. No, we still have patches of them here and there grazing farms and they do that at night.

“But some cows still come in the night to destroy rice plantations,” he said.

(NAN)