By Bashir Mohammed
Kano
National Chairman, Maize Association of Nigeria (MAN), Alhaji Bello Abubakar Annur, has called on the federal government to effect measures aimed at stopping importing maize into the country for local production of the commodity to be realistic.
Speaking to newsmen in Kano yesterday, Annur said with the continuous importation of the commodity, the priority attention accorded to local production by farmers would be counterproductive, adding that farmers producing maize locally would find it difficult to make any profit out of the business.
He said the only way local producers “can be encouraged to sustain the tempo of producing maize locally is to allow them to decide the fate of the commodity at local markets” and that the federal government was at a liberty to introduce a price regime that would be acceptable to both the farmers and consumers.
He said massive importation of maize would made its price to crumble at the expense of local producers which could eventually put them out of business, stressing that allowing local producers to supply the commodity to consumers would make the business of local farming attractive.
