Irrigation: 4,127 rice farmers to benefit from CBN anchor borrower programme in Kano state


No fewer than 4, 127 registered rice farmers in Kano state are expected to benefit from the CBN anchor borrower programme during the 2017 dry season farming.

Alhaji Abubakar Aliyu, the state chairman of Rice Farmers Association of Nigeria (RIFAN) disclosed this to the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in an interview on Monday in Kano.

He said the number was, however, below the 5, 540 farmers that benefitted from the programme during the wet season.

Aliyu explained that each farmer would collect seed, fertilizer, chemical and cash.

“The total package of the facility is N163, 710 per farmer. Each farmer will receive fertilizer, seed, chemical and cash with which to pay for labour,” he said.

The chairman, however, expressed concern that no farmer had accessed the facility, even when planting was expected to be completed by the end of February.

“As I am talking to you now, none of the farmers has collected the input, let alone commence planting.”

He attributed the delay to the inability of the state Product Monitoring Team to coordinate its activities and the withdrawal of commercial banks from the programme.

“When commercial banks withdrew from the programme, the Bank of Agriculture took over, but BOA lacks the platform of a banking system.

“Many farmers spent six months without getting their account number,” he noted.

He appealed to the Central Bank of Nigeria to review the guidelines on risk sharing, to enable commercial banks embrace the programme.

“Commercial banks are afraid of participating because the CBN insisted that they must take 50 per cent risk. This is the reason why they withdrew at the initial stage.”

On Growth Enhancement Scheme, the chairman commended the federal government for giving 50 per cent subsidy on fertilizer and 75 per cent subsidy on seeds.

“The GES programme is going on at all the designated redemption centres across the 44 local government areas of the state,” added.




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 Agricultura...
Read more

Monsanto Nigeria Launches 3 Conventional Maize Hybrids

Maize farmers across Nigeria now have 3 high yielding conventional maize hybrids to choose from the DEKALB ® brand as Monsanto Agriculture Nigeria Limited launches 3 conventional maize hybrids. The launch held in Abuja on Tuesday May 17 2016 had in attendance farmers, development partners, government regulatory bodies and other stakeholders from both the private and public sectors of the economy. The launch of these hybrid seeds follows their registration by the National Committee on Naming, Registration and Release of Crop Varieties, Livestock Breeds and Fisheries in February 2016. The white maize hybrid, DK234 alongside the 2 yellow maize hybrids, DK920 and DK818 obtained registration approval for use in Nigeria after testing across various agro ecological zones on multi-location farms. The white maize hybrid DK234 with yield potential of 13 tonnes per hectare is well adapted for the Southern and Northern Guinea Savanna ecologies and shows tolerance to Maize Streak Virus, ...
Read more