FCTA urged to provide more land for farmers, not estate developers only

The District Head of Jikwoyi, Nicodemus Machi, has urged the Federal Capital Territory Administration (FCTA) to provide more land for farming to ensure food security.

Machi alleged that the government had allocated more land to estate developers at the expense of the natives’ occupation, farming.

“Farming activities have been distracted, there is more land now for estate developers, markets, hotels, residential houses not minding the interest of the farmers,” he said.

Machi who spoke when the chairman of Abuja Municipal Area Council (AMAC), Abdullahi Adamu Candido distributed free fertilisers to farmers implored the council’s authorities to liaise with the FCTA on the need to reserve land for farming activities, adding that the present situation had made natives ‘look as if we are idle people.’

Also, Candido said there was the need for the government to reserve land for farmers if food was to be provided for the residents.

“We appeal to FCTA to make land available for farming activities. Let all land not be used for building purposes. Let the FCTA reserve certain land for people to farm, food is very necessary,” he said.

In the same line, the council’s Director of Agriculture, Dr. Rueben Ishaya, said the government must make agriculture attractive through deliberate investment in mechanised farms and agriculture friendly Land Use Acts.

He also appealed to the FCTA to lease fallow lands allocated to property developers for a minimum period of five years for farming activities.

Source: Daily Trust