Smallholder Farmers Battle A Lot Of Challenges In Nigeria – Buhari

President Muhammadu Buhari has come out to say that smallholder farmers are suffering from several problems like low productivity, lack of reliable markets, and poor rural access roads.

He recently revealed this at the 2nd National Commodity Alliance Forum organized by IFAD with the theme: Enhancing productivity and market opportunities for cassava value chain development.

According to him, these problems include lack of access to quality extension, low-level mechanization, lack of market information, climate change effects, post-harvest losses, private sector engagement, and policy direction and implementation.

He added that he is happy with how Nigeria is presently the largest producer of cassava in the world with an estimated figure of around 60 million metric tons, and the country even has the capacity to double or triple the production figure of the product is fully industrialized.

His words, “Nigeria is currently the largest producer of cassava in the world with an estimated figure of around 60 million metric tons, and with the capacity to double or triple the production figure of the product is fully industrialized.

“Intermittently, cassava producers in Nigeria express frustration and lamentation over the inability to sell their fresh cassava roots.”

The Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development, Alhaji Muhammad Nanono added, ”Putting Nigeria’s agricultural sector on a path to growth will require deliberate actions to solve these two problems.”

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Muhammadu Buhari GCFR (born 17 December 1942) is a Nigerian politician currently serving as the President of Nigeria, in office since 2015. He is a retired major general in the Nigerian Army and previously served as the nation’s head of state from 31 December 1983 to 27 August 1985, after taking power in a military coup d’état. The term Buharism is ascribed to the Buhari military government.

He unsuccessfully ran for the office of president of Nigeria in the 2003, 2007, and 2011 general elections. In December 2014, he emerged as the presidential candidate of the All Progressives Congress for the March 2015 general elections. Buhari won the election, defeating the incumbent President Goodluck Jonathan. This marked the first time in the history of Nigeria that an incumbent president lost to an opposition candidate in a general election. He was sworn in on 29 May 2015. In February 2019, Buhari was re-elected President, defeating his closest rival Atiku Abubakar by over 3 million votes.

Buhari has stated that he takes responsibility for anything over which he presided during his military rule, and that he cannot change the past. He has described himself as a “converted democrat”.

Muhammadu Buhari was born to a Fulani family on 17 December 1942, in Daura, Katsina State, to his father Hardo Adamu, a Fulani chief, and mother Zulaihat. He is the twenty-third child of his father. Buhari was raised by his mother, after his father died when he was about four years old.