Neglecting Peasant Farmers ..... All Cooperative Farmers Association

Farmers like Ameze, Iyimade, Edemakhiota, Agbonlahor, Madam Isibor and others, un-doubtedly need seeds and simple farming equipment. Food aid alone is of limited value. As the Chinese proverb says: “Give a man a fish, and you feed him for a day. Teach a man to fish, and you feed him for a lifetime.” Generally, African peasants farmers, Most especially Farmers from Edo State are not helped to succeed as farmers, though there are exceptions in some other African countries.

Since colonial times, Africa’s best land has been devoted to the production of cash crops for export. In addition, large farming projects have been developed to provide food for the more affluent cities. Thus peasant farmers have often been pushed off good land and forced to subsist on land that is less productive. Left to fend for themselves, Africa’s peasants have degraded fragile land by over cultivation and overgrazing, and by cutting down too many trees. Large portions of African lands are turning into desert.

Their position has also been undermined by price-fixing. To please city dwellers, many African governments keep the price of farm produce very low. This policy, according to the scientific journal Nature, has “contributed powerfully to the decline of agriculture, the hunger of the same urban populations and the dependence of potentially fertile Africa on food imports.” Working on redirecting this design however, the All Cooperative Farmers Association (ACFA) have concluded to embark on a more tedious kind of farming but with required quality produce from the farm. And this scheme is called REVISITING THE NATURAL FARMING