BENIN CITY – The Foundation for Partnership Initiative in the Niger Delta (PIND), an NGO has advocated a legislation that will allow farmers in Edo State access arable land seamlessly.

At a stakeholders workshop in Benin City, with the theme, “Value Proposition for Sustainable Arable Land in Edo State,” the Executive Director of PIND, Mr Tunji Idowu through the Advocacy Manager, Mr Chuks Ofulue said that the NGO’s discovered that small holder farmers in Edo do not have seamless access to adequate arable land.

This, he said has limited the farmers to subsistence farming.

According to him, “Access to land will help address food security … We agree that if they improve productivity, they increase income; if they increase income, they increase profitability; and then they increase their standard of living.”

In creating an enabling business environment and a supportive development ecosystem, he said that the NGO is supporting the Arable Land Development Committee to interrogate the issue of inadequate access to arable land in Edo State

So far, he said that PIND has reached 614,503 farmers and MSMEs with information/services on agricultural and business best practices as well as facilitated over 2,600 service providers to support small holder farmers and businesses across the agricultural value chain.

He therefore called on the Edo State government to strengthen its land banking and geo-referencing system to support the PIND initiative geared towards seamless acquisition of arable land by small holder farmers in the state.