The All Farmers Association of Nigeria (AFAN) said it is sensitising farmers across the country on how to key into the Federal Government's Agricultural Transformation Agenda (ATA). The AFAN National Financial Secretary, Dr. Tunde Arosanyin, said this in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Abuja on Wednesday. Arosanyin said the association had so far visited 21 out of the 36 states, where capacity building workshops was organised for farmers.
He said that viable commodity associations were also brought engaged at the training programmes at the state level. "We sensitised the farmers on the various commodities to complete the registration form released by the Federal Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development,'' he said. NAN reports that the ministry had adopted the Optical Mark Readable (OMR) forms for the 2013 farmers' registration exercise.
The adoption of OMR forms is to avert some of the errors experienced in the 2012 exercise. Arosanyin said that the association also conducted elections at state levels and that AFAN Constitution was followed in the conduct of these elections.
"AFAN has a constitution and the constitution says that if you must come on board you must follow a democratic process.
"We make sure leadership emerged at every level through a democratic process. It is the people who will choose those to represent them at every level,'' he added. He observed that there had been some little resistance in some states regarding the election. According to him, the AFAN national convention will take place after the state elections have been concluded.
