INTERNATIONAL CO-OPERATIVE DAY: Edo Co-operative Federation. (ECF)

The Bible says that my people perish for lack of knowledge. Sometime  things  happen in a way that one is prompt to ask;

Ø How did it happen? 

Ø Why did it happen?

Ø Whom did it happen to?

Question 3 as highlighted here, which ask whom it happened for is a question directed directly to both the immediate beneficiaries and the extended beneficiaries. But who are the immediate and extended beneficiaries referring to here?

The international cooperative day was held amidst funfair. As various cooperative groups where effectively represented, it was held in a very conducive environment where the participants were able to learn conveniently. The venue of the program was YWCA premises, situated at along Airport Road, Benin City.

Important personalities present includes the commissioner for commerce and industry ably represented by the permanent secretary, the past president of the Edo Co-operative Federation, Assistant. Cooperative Director or the Registrar of the Cooperative Dept, and other personalities.

Although the event went smoothly as can be viewed by onlookers, Nevertheless, there is division among the various cooperative representatives in the state. This could be noted from the speech made by the commissioner for commerce through the well esteemed permanent secretary. where she read that

THE AWAKENING OF THE ABANDONED MOST IMPORTANT SECTOR OF NIGERIA’S ECONOMY

               Indeed it has begun to dawn on the country that the dependability on crude oil cannot sustain the economy. Prior to the discovering of crude oil, Nigeria used to derive its income from Agriculture.

Agricultural sector of the economy use to be the bedrock that hold the country; we lost all the benefit of agriculture when the black gold (crude oil) was discovered. All emphasis was now placed on oil. When it dawn on her that crude oil is not food; and that if converted to food it can not serve its purpose(agric), the government of the day has now decided to go back to the abandoned sector, which they has failed to cultivate for many years past.

Talking about agriculture, there is a plant that has been widely accepted as the fourth most important food in the sub-Saharan region of the world. No doubt that emphasis is now being contemplated by government on how to improve in the production of this crop which is otherwise known as the GREEN GOLD. 

To show how concerned the government at all level of the economy is being concerned in promoting the massive production of this green gold, recently a workshop was organized for the producers of cassava from the south-south zone of the country by  the Nigerian Agricultural Co-operative And Rural Development Bank.. precisely on the 21-22 August, 2008. The seminar was tagged the processing and utilization of cassava. About 310 farmers participated.

ACFA: Assisting Farmers to Set Up successful and Productive Goals

              Before you start the preparation for your set goal! “FARMING” you are expected to design a work-plan after concluding on the kind of farm you want to go in. whether animal farming or seed farming. The local paper dawn for this project which is to serve as headway, will guard you on what your goals are , what kind of farm are you planning? If it is going to be a hobby farm, a subsistence farm, or going into a full commercial farming.

 
 It could be that you want your farm to actually make money, eventually replacing your current job. This is your choice to make. But it must be included in your plan.

This is very essential because it is a direction for you. You are expected to know your destination and the best access route to it. This design you have made will serve that purpose and straightforwardly too.

ACFA

1. The construction engineers and their workers need food 
2. Market women using the newly constructed markets need food 
3. Pupils, students and their teachers using the new schools need food 
4. The Police that are enjoying the new vehicles and security gadget need food 
5. The military, defending the Nigerian’s boundaries need food 
6. Doctors need food 
7. Patients expected to enjoy the new hospitals needs food 
8. Directors in our various ministries need food 
9. All our commissioners need food 
10. All Edo State local government Chairmen need food 
11. The Senators and Reps. Need food 
12. All the nation Ministers need food 
13. Our esteemed president, Dr. Goodluck Jonathan also need food 
14. Even you our unparalleled Comrade governor also need our food

From the analysis presented here regarding people that may need food, shows that every living soul is bound to eat or else death becomes his or her companion.

Why then does the various arm of governments in Nigeria decided to neglect the farmers? a case study is Edo state, where the hardworking farmers have been relegated to nothing. And the set of people that need this food most, are the same people causing division among the un-suspecting farmers. It's like everyone have forgotten so soon the book of Matthew 24: 7b.

The dedicated All Cooperative Farmers Association plead with you our governor and the government cabinet, including the legislature that what we need at this point is not just loan, rather grant and poliycy that will create a level plain ground for the farmers to operate. As this will boost the effort and determination of the farmers. It will awaken the zeal and concentration, dedication to duty to these most honorable, legitimate, Law abiding citizens of this great country, Nigeria.

            
We wont stop requesting until we get what we are requesting for. The All Cooperative Farmers Association have decided to show their seriousness and consciousness to make farming honourable and also to be accepted by the onlookers who thought the lives of farmers will never be changed for the better. The farmers has been permitted to use some part of the government reserve in Okokhuo as a demonstration farm this year 2014, to really show how determined and skilled they are in the farming business. And with their collective effort, have been able to maintain about 100 acres out of the 100 Hectares approved for this Association by the Ministry of Environment and Utilities.

           

ACFA Executives with some Officials of Ovia North 

East Local Government Council in the farm to ascertain 

the cost of bulldozing and grading the road to the farm.

the visit was conducted in the month of February, 2014

but has since be neglected by the council. 

What we request from our governor now is to assist us with kick off grant to enable the unrelenting farmers of Edo State, especially the Ovia North East Wing to succeed in this venture. ACFA promised to ever remain faithful and loyal to your government if we are supported to show to the world that Edo land is the most fertile land for agricultural venture in Nigeria and that we are eligible to provide the food that can take care of all Nigerians if we are given the needed assistance.
We thank you

Mr. Bright Umweni
 H.O.D Agric, Okada.

All Cooperative Farmers Association: SINCERELY ORGANIZING EDO FARMERS

ACFA  farm managers, having concluded plan to concentrated her efforts on assisting cooperative farmers in the state to be well organized and to be able to mass produce and add value to their agricultural based products and to promote small-scale entrepreneurs, believe that if this plan succeeds, it will go a long way to assisting the government in creating employment opportunities for the teeming unemployed Youths, and also to help in the struggle for food security and to reduce Rural/Urban Migration.

The total number of farmers that will benefit from this program by the end of the pilot project will exceeded 3,000. Nearly 57% of the total farmers record with ACFA. Of which reasonable numbers of farmers affiliated to her were small-holders (of whom 28% were living in land reform settlements), 29% were renters, and 11% were sharecroppers. More than half of the total number of project the beneficiaries will enjoy shall be that they will be assisted to cultivate not less than 1 ha; each.
The designed  cooperative

ACFA Agriculture Development Research Education (ADReD)

FARMERS PLIGHT

Before now, our lives as farmers have been made miserable by those we thought will give us convenience and guarantee to succeed. But they made us pass through laborious process to benefit, just a bundle of cassava cuttings.

This unprecedented stress has caused the lives of many farmers to be shortened. We, the Edo Farmers are treated just like slaves, as we are given just a measure of food as will keep the breath in our bodies. Those of us who are capable to work are forced to work to the last atom of our strength, when it’s clear that they are satisfy with our services, they throw us away just like snail shell.

Imagine the situation in of farmers in some community in the outskirt of the state; where indigenous farmers cash crops are destroyed by a total stranger in the name of a private investor, without pity or concern for the farmers that has spent all their lives pampering the crops so destroyed. These farmers, seeing the growth of the said crops, were waiting for the time they will start to enjoy the fruit of their labour. Only for that thought to be cut short by a brutal non indigenous investors. As you are reading this information, the farmers don’t even have land to farm on presently even in their own community. All their farmlands have been taken away from them. 

The most unfortunate situation the farmers are facing is that no were in the state has been dedicated for farming purpose why they are contemplating a large grazing land for herdsmen. Could you imagine sharing my father’s inheritance first to my father’s slave only to leave a remnant to us, the legitimate children. If a specific area has not been earmark for special farming, will it ever augur well for anyone who want to first share our land to stranger before asking us if we also need? This is beating a drum of war! Because our farmers are not yet assured that come rain or sun, they have farmlands that no one/authority will take away from them.

Because of this development, no farmers in this state actually knows the meaning of happiness or leisure, no farmers is free, since they are never allowed to take part in the decision making that will enhance their success. The life of all farmers in this state is full of misery and slavery that is the plain truth. Where then do we go from here and whom should we depend on to exonerate us?      

     

            This is a Trillion Dollar question that no government or private donors agencies have not been able to answer. But if you insist that you can give a workable and productive answer to this riddle, comment or participate in this program in anyway you can conveniently be involve in the good work of ACFA.