 |
| Bauchi State |
Farmers in Bauchi State are to get a N1billion loan from the Federal Government to boost their farm input this year.
The state House of Assembly, Committee on Agriculture Chairman Abdulkadir Ahmed Wahu yesterday expressed confidence that farmers in the state will experience good farming season.
He noted: “By the grace of God, and the utility of the loan, if we don’t have flood this year, almost every farmer will be happy with what they planted as the harvest will be good’’.
Giving the break-down of the loan, Wahu said N600 million will spent on for the purchase of fertiliser and N200 million for the purchase of ingredients to blend the fertiliser by the state government owned Fertiliser Blending Company.
He added: ‘’And a balance of N200million would be used by Bauchi Agricultural Supply Company to procure chemicals, insecticides, farm implements and other allied agricultural input, and repair the grounded tractors will be used by the farmers.”
He explained that the fertiliser needs of farmers in the state in the cropping season are to be met by the Bauchi Fertiliser Blending Company, adding: ‘’These efforts will be complemented by the Federal Government under its E–Wallet system of fertiliser sale.”
According to him, not less than two million farmers are expected to be registered under the E-Wallet system of fertiliser sale, as over 300,000 have already been registered at the beginning of the programme.
He noted that Bauchi State has a very high number of registered farmers under the E-Wallet system, and it is also the highest collector of registration forms among 36 states.
He attributed the high increase of farmers to the population growth of over 7 million from the 4.6 million people based on 2006 census to the influx of people from Plateau, Borno Yobe, Adamawa and Taraba states to insecurity in these states, saying the influx is a good omen to increase in agricultural produce.
Source: The Nation
No comments:
Post a Comment