89 women benefit from Anchor Borrower Programme in Daura – Chairman


Alhaji Nura Baure, the Chairman, Rice Farmers Association says more than 89 women farmers have benefited from agricultural loan facility under the Anchor Borrowers Programme in Daura zone of Katsina State.

Baure, who is also the Zonal Coordinator of the programme, told the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Daura on Thursday that the women were registered as rice and wheat farmers.

Baure said that the women were given farming implements that include seedlings, water pumping machines, herbicides and the liquid fertilisers.

“We supplied them with four litres each of liquid NPK fertiliser and three litres of micro nutrient urea fertiliser,’’ the coordinator said.

He appealed to the Bank of Agriculture to hasten the release of the second batch of the registered farmers to enable them begin cultivation soonest.

“I appeal to those whose names did not make the first list of beneficiaries to exercise patience as efforts were being made to resolve the problem.’’

Baure said that out of the 89 beneficiaries, 53 were from Daura, two from Baure town, two from Zango, three from Sandamu and 29 from Dutsi local government areas.

Mr Aliyu Mani, an Agricultural Extension Officer in the area told NAN that he supervised the implementation of the programme and guided the farmers on modern farming techniques for bumper harvest.

He said that he had so far supervised 30 hectres of farmlands in Daura local government area and the yield was encouraging, adding “we are expecting bumper harvest’’.

Hajiya Zainab Daura, a beneficiary, who cultivates two hectres of grains per season, commended the Federal Government for introducing the programme.

She advised women to key into the programme, saying “I am 58 years old but I struggle to fend for myself by engaging in farming even before the advent of the anchor borrower programme.

“I produce hundreds of bags of rice, groundnut, sorghum and beans and I have been catering for my children through farming since when I lost their father many years back.’’

A total of 1,092 farmers in Daura zone had benefited from the Federal Government programme, but registration of interested farmers continues.

The Anchor Borrowers’ Programme is an initiative of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) aimed at creating an ecosystem to link out-growers (small holders’ farmers) to local processors.

President Muhammadu Buahri launched the initiative during the flag-off of the 2015 dry season farming in Birnin-Kebbi on Nov. 17, 2015.


Under the programme, the CBN set aside N40 billion from the N220 billion Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises development fund for farmers at a single-digit interest of nine per cent.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Tomato disease outbreak: Institute appeals for research funding

The National Horticultural Research Institute, Ibadan, has appealed for funding to carry out research and create awareness on the tuta absoluta pest on tomatoes. The Institute’s Head of Vegetable Programme, Dr Olagorite Adetula, told the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Ibadan on Friday that there was an urgent need to tackle the problem to save the economy. Adetula said the institute needed money to do surveillance survey of the pest/damage, ascertain the impact of the damage and proffer solution for eradicating the pest. She appealed to the Federal Government to help the institute get pheromones to lure and trap the pests and distribute to farmers. ``Spraying insecticides is not the best, the pest has high production rate, some of them can escape while spraying it and they will be resistant to the insecticide thereby causing us more cost. ``The pheromones can be used for six to eight weeks before changing it, it is very effective, the pest has short life cycle, wit
Read more

10,000 women farmers to be engaged in ECOWAS rice project – official

Image
 Mr Richard Olafare, the President, Seed Entrepreneurs Association of Nigeria (SEEDAN) says 10,000 women will be engaged in the recently inaugurated Rice Seed Up-Scaling Project. This is contained in a presentation on the project made available to the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Abuja on Friday. Olafare said 8,000 youths would also be engaged in the scaling project. According to him, the number of women and youths represented 50 per cent and 40 per cent respectively of the 20,000 farmers that will participate in the project. NAN reports that the project is an initiative of the West Africa Seed Programme (WASP) in support of the ECOWAS Rice Offensive Programme that was inaugurated in 2014. Among other objectives, it is targeting the production of 60,000 metric tonnes of paddy rice for Nigeria by December 2017, using 1,200 certified seeds. The project is being implemented by SEEDAN in collaboration with the West and Central Africa Council for Agricultural Re
Read more

NEGPRO project can create more jobs with inclusion of meat production— Badmus

•Tuns Farm leads food safety, quality system audit The Chairman , Tuns Farms Nigeria, Asiwaju Olatunde Badmus, has disclosed that the proposed one million jobs expected to be created through the National Egg Production Scheme (NEGPRO) can be doubled if extended to meat production. He made this known when a team from the office of the Vice President, Federal Ministries of Agriculture, Health and Education at the company’s headquarters in Osogbo, the Osun state capital recently. Olatunde Badmus, while sharing the company’s experience on chicken inclusion in the Osun state’s school meal program which the company has been handling since the introduction of the school feeding program four years ago, said they can achieve so much more in terms of job creation through meat production “As we speak, six state governors among who are Kebbi and Borno, have signalled their government’s preparedness to look into this and have invited TUNS farm to their states to discuss modalities for
Read more