The plan of the Federal Government to distribute 10 million cell phones to farmers in the country sounds like a huge joke. Although the Minister of Agriculture, Dr. Akinwunmi Adesina, has corrected the report that the Permanent Secretary of the Ministry, Mrs. Ibukun Odusote, said the phones would be bought by the government at the cost of N60 billion, his explanation that the phones will be supplied to farmers through Public/Private Sector partnership, does not detract from the folly of the initiative.
The scheme, which is to involve a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) between the Ministries of Agricultural Resources and Rural Development, Women Affairs and Communication, is clearly out of place. While it is true as the minister has said that cell phones will help to increase farmers’ access to information on climate change and loan opportunities, and boost agricultural production in the country, giving out of free telephones to farmers is not the best way to boost their productivity. Telephones cannot be said to be the greatest need of Nigerian farmers today. They are neither fertilisers nor agricultural implements.
The telephone is also clearly not the best way to reach farmers who mostly live in the rural areas. Rural information centres, traditional communication models and the radio are much better channels. There are also many more direct initiatives through which the government can boost agricultural production in the country, than provision of telephones. More importantly, the government does not need to buy telephones for farmers because those among them who could use such phones, already have them.
With handsets selling for as low as between N2000 and N3000 in the country, any farmer that is worth the name can afford to own one, and most likely has one already. If they do not, what the government needs to do is to empower them to be able to afford such a basic tool. They should not have to rely on handouts or any public/ private sector mumbo-jumbo plan to get one. The very fact that the government has to go into this grandiose plan to provide handsets for farmers suggests grinding poverty amongst farmers in Nigeria.
The minister has explained that the phones are to be given to farmers to trigger an information revolution that will drive an agricultural revolution among agricultural workers who constitute 70 per cent of the Nigerian population. Five million of the handsets, he said, are to be given to women. However, we wonder how the government arrived at the figure of 10 million phone sets for farmers in Nigeria without a comprehensive database of farmers in the country. How, again, would 10 million cell phones serve the needs of farmers that the minister said constitute 70 percent of Nigeria’s 160 million population?
This entire phone scheme appears more designed to facilitate billion naira contracts for phone suppliers, than increased food production in the country. This is even more so as the young persons the government says it wants to attract into farming with this type of initiative are already using more advanced communication gadgets and may not need or appreciate the cheap phones the government is arranging for them. If the government is truly interested in helping farmers to boost food production, we expect that the first step will be to identify the farmers where they are and classify them into groups.
This should be followed up with direct intervention in terms of availability of affordable fertilisers and farming implements. The farmers in the rural areas can be educated on how to improve their farming methods through traditional communication channels and the radio. Farmers need good roads to evacuate their produce to the markets.
Government should also build massive silos and buying produce in season off farmers to reduce wastage, improve their profitability and ensure availability of farm produce at reasonable prices through the year. For any serious intervention in the agricultural sector, ascertaining the demographics of this class of Nigerians is not negotiable. The farmers can also be assisted with soft loans at reasonable interest rates.
These are the ways to help farmers, not through gargantuan schemes designed more to sell phones, (which are unlikely to get to the farmers, anyway), than to help food production. We see no merit at all in this 10 million farmers’ phones scheme. It should be jettisoned. Whatever funds and efforts the government and its private partners want to commit to this scheme should be re-deployed to more productive uses in the agricultural sector of the economy.
I thank this writer for exposing these foolish, illiterates, money miss road, election riggers, confussionists, people who got into power by mistake. Tell me, how cell phone became a problem to a typical Nigerian farmer? At times I wonder what the likes of Okonjo Iweala, world class economist doing in the midst of these illiterate fools?
Even they succeeded in given out d phones d question i want 2 ask “who will pick their calls when needed, is it d same federal govt that always busy sharing/laundry money or d states that do not even care about their citizens, will hv their time? or who else
niger funi die abeg, which 1 b phn again 4 farmers. Na all dis dere nonsense scheme dem dey use dey thief moni. Smal tym u go hear sy d 60billion don lost 4 ministry of agriculture nd dt dey neede extra 20billion to set up commitee to look 4 d moni or dt d agricutre ministry catch fire nd d hole 10million phnz get burned. Mtcewww nonsnse
niger funi die abeg, which 1 b phn again 4 farmers. Na all dis dere nonsense scheme dem dey use dey thief moni. Smal tym u go hear sy d 60billion don lost 4 ministry of agriculture nd dt dey neede extra 20billion to set up commitee to look 4 d moni or dt d agricutre ministry catch fire nd d hole 10million phnz get burned nd dt dey nid 200b 2 renovate d ministry. Mtcewww nonsnse 08060942866
I am not here to defend Bode George. His appointment is within the political party of which he is a bonafide member. I am an observer like anyone else as to the standard of public morals of the PDP. The PDP will come to us, when next they need our votes, that is the time we will let them know what we think of them. Leave the criticism to the other political parties, that is their job. At the end of the day, we the voters have the final say. Let us spend the next six months asking the Government for electricity, good roads, improvement in our hospitals.
I am sure that the sun Newspapers will not mind helping us to collate our figures and forward it to ASO ROCK. All these internal affairs of the PDP is nothing but a distraction. Concentrate on what matters most to all of us. At the moment life for us is a struggle, lets deal with that. God Bless the SUN NEWSPAPERS, theirs will be a good public service.
PDP is a failure and should be helped to fail by using Bode an ex-convict in any way.
Whoever wants to distribute phones to farmers is a novice in stealing. He or she should apply another method of stealing which might probably work.
criminals in diguise why dnt dey steal as usual oda dan using d name of famers, shameless scums.
Nigerians think fast, but their thinking is always with a hidden agenda. Think of the CBN Governor with his devaluation of the currencies. Now another minister with a useless and unproductive ideas. This minister or whoever brought the idea most have finalized his plans with the GSM (Hand set) producers and the GSM ( providers and distributions) just for the percentage that will be given to him or them, but certainty NOT for the benefit of the farmer or Nigerians. The initiators should know that Nigerians of yesterday is different from today’s. No Nigerian can be taken for a ride anymore. God helps Nigerian
l blame Nigerians for voting for the wrong people. We celebrate failures, incompetency and corruption. We also favor tribalism. l am ashamed sometimes to call myself a Nigerian, thank God l have a dual Nationality.
These people are thieves, may God deliver us from their hands. What do a farmer need phone for? So they mean that they are going to buy phone worth N250,000 for each farmer they are bloody lairs. N1,000 phone is enough if at all the farmers need such from them. In fact the minster deserve sack period!!!!
i pledge to nigerian my country politicians una well done ooooooooo is like all dis end time d bible talks about una no hear ram abi una think say una go bribe una way to heaven
The minister for agriculture should resign for accepting or initiating such programme and his Phd certificate investigated. Tomorrow he will tell us he is giving out 10 million generator (i pass my neighbour) to farmers to charge the phones. He is bereft of ideas and the ministry cannot move forward with such dumb man at the helm of affairs.
tomorrow they will say they spent one trillion dollars on the distribution of phone to farmers; you ask for the evidence, they produce their accomplices.
give cell phones to farmers to facilitate kidnappers contacting them when their old parents are abducted for ransom. shame to shameless nigeria, shame, shame!!!