10 million phones for farmers from the government? Quite laughable

The plan of the Federal Government to distribute 10 million cell phones to farmers in the country sounds like a huge joke. Although the Minister of Agriculture, Dr. Akinwunmi Adesina, has corrected the report that the Permanent Secretary of the Ministry, Mrs. Ibukun Odusote, said the phones would be bought by the government at the cost of N60 billion, his explanation that the phones will be supplied to farmers through Public/Private Sector partnership, does not detract from the folly of the initiative.

The scheme, which is to involve a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) between the Ministries of Agricultural Resources and Rural Development, Women Affairs and Communication, is clearly out of place. While it is true as the minister has said that cell phones will help to increase farmers’ access to information on climate change and loan opportunities, and boost agricultural production in the country, giving out of free telephones to farmers is not the best way to boost their productivity. Telephones cannot be said to be the greatest need of Nigerian farmers today. They are neither fertilisers nor agricultural implements.

The telephone is also clearly not the best way to reach farmers who mostly live in the rural areas. Rural information centres, traditional communication models and the radio are much better channels. There are also many more direct initiatives through which the government can boost agricultural production in the country, than provision of telephones. More importantly, the government does not need to buy telephones for farmers because those among them who could use such phones, already have them.

With handsets selling for as low as between N2000 and N3000 in the country, any farmer that is worth the name can afford to own one, and most likely ha

Sourec: the sun

Alleged N69bn Phone To Farmers: You’ve Something To Hide, TUC Tells Agric Minister



The Trade Union Congress (TUC) has accused the Minister of Agriculture, Dr. Akinwunmi Adesina of not telling Nigerians the truth on what he intends to do with the N60 billion allegedly meant for the provision of 10 million handsets to rural farmers in the country.

Chairman of TUC in Rivers ea8 State, Comrade Hyginus Chika Onuegbu, who made the accusation in an interview with LEADERSHIP in Port Harcourt, wondered how the minister would get to all the rural farmers in the country without having their data-base.

Onuegbu said; “the minister is economical with the truth. The minister hasn’t told us what he really wants to do with the N60 billion. First of all, many questions will arise. How did the minister come about the 60 billion? Who are these farmers? Does the minister have the data-base of these farmers?

“I know that agriculture in this country has not been taken serious by anybody. There are no records of people who are actually farmers. The extension services are longer working and here we have somebody talking about distributing cell-phones worth N60 billion.

“The question is; has the minister met farmers and found out that what is uppermost in their mind is handset? Does he not think that he is misallocating resources? That is why I said the minister seems to be economical with the truth. He hasn’t told us what he really wants to do with the N60 billion because I do not think that the intention is that the money will get to the farmers.

“The minister had made lots of beautiful presentations for which he was applauded by Nigerians but the way he is going about it now, I think that he has not told us the whole truth. Nigerians need to ask why such a very brilliant man will come up with such policy that will be very detrimental to Nigerians.”

Expressing the fears that the money may have been earmarked for the prosecution of the 2015 general elections, the TUC chairman said the minister may have used the distribution of handsets to rural farmers as a ploy to deceive Nigerians.

He said; “It is obvious that the N60 billion may be diverted to the 2015 election project. The minister of Agriculture has been making presentations on how he is going to help agriculture grow in this country.

 Source: Leadership

It is obvious that this is a strategy to loot again.

Despite criticisms that have trailed the proposed purchase of cell phones for farmers in the country, the Minister of Agriculture, Dr Akinwunmi Adeshina, yesterday reiterated that there was no going back on the policy as government was committed to enhancing the performance of Nigerian farmers.

Addressing newsmen, the minister said government would not commit itself to direct purchase of the cell phones for farmers but would only subsidise the phones through a partnership that would involve telephone service operators, Ministry of Communications Technology and other stakeholders.

According to him, the decision by government to subsidise the purchase of cell phones for farmers is tied to the distribution of fertilizers directly to the farmers without the involvement of third parties who had allegedly been ripping them off.

He said: “Government policy must always be based on evidence and well analyzed data. We carried out an analysis of our GES work based on a large sample of 426,000 farmers from various local government areas in 13 states.

“We found that 71 percent of farmers sampled did not have cell phones. This shows that many of our farmers in rural areas are quite poor and are excluded from the benefits of the mobile phone revolution going on in Nigeria.

“These farmers cannot access the GES scheme without cellphones and we must find a way to include them. They must not be left behind.”

The minister said the ministry planned to make phones available to farmers on a gradual basis, pointing out that government would not be involved in direct purchase of phones.

“Of course, we cannot get 10 million phones to all farmers who do not have phones this year. Our plan is a gradual scale up. We intend to get about 2 million phones to farmers who do not have phones this year”