Govt Should Subsidize Feed Machines Prices To Fight Hunger Says Farmer
Irked by the current spate of food items price that has resulted in hunger nation wide, an Nkwelle-Ezunaka, Oyi local Government Area, Anambra State, based live stock farmer, Mr. Onunkwo Obinna Ifeanyichukwu, disclosed Sunday, that if the Federal Government subsidizes price of feed machines that the issue of hunger will be a thing of the past
Ifeanyichukwu who is the Chief Executive Officer, CEO, of Arubo farms Nigeria Limited, Nkwelle-Ezunaka, stated that the major problem hindering increased productivity is high cost of feed machines.
His words, "Farmers across the nation, the major problem we, live stock farmers, are facing is procurement of feed machines for production. I feel the best way government can come in to help is helping to subsidize the feed machines price. If you are into agriculture, you can as well source your raw materials but the machine is not what you just get.
"if government can subsidize the high cost of the purchase of the feed machines for fish, as palliative, if we can get a subsidy on that, maybe part payment program is enough. If fish farmers can get this machines and start producing feed for themselves, hunger will be drastically curtailed .
'The cost of the feed from last year has trippled, affecting business such that you cannot sell, sometimes like I have fish now, I cannot sell because I don't know the price I can sell. We are expecting feed price rise by the end of the month, is a big problem.
' If they can come in that aspect so that we can be producing even if it is for our own use, if a fish farmer can produce what he will use in his Own farm, is a big plus, for that we know exactly what we get and make the food available for people as well by getting machine at subsidized rate.
"You can sell your product at subsidizrd rate as well, thereby reducing the hunger that is happening now. The machines are very expensive. The little one you can use for average height farms like ours, will be about three thousand plus dollars.
"We buy foreign feed, it Is always advisable you get a foreign feed for the small farm but there is no different between the foreign feed and what you get for your self, local source, it is just to Increase the protein content which is mostly the fish meal.
"We have companies that produce feed in Nigeria but they are sourcing those raw materials as well but the feed is quite expensive, even for a produce from Nigeria, so we buy feed," he explained.
According to him the raw material for the feed is not that expensive as it is something one can still source within his environment as livestock farmer, and they include, cassava for carbohydrates, corn, the fish oil, fish product like bone, body, among others, just dry it.
"This things are things you can get as farmer, if we get this subsidy that we are requesting for, it will help to improve on other aspects of agriculture because we get to buy from the people cultivating cassava for our raw materials. You get almost everything there, it is nothing foreign about the feed, is what you can get here," he explained.
Pic shows the farmer at his pond section