Farmers association to cultivate 600 hectares of soya beans in Taraba


The Nigerian Commercial Farmers Association (NCFA) has secured 600 hectares of land in Wukari, Taraba, for soya beans cultivation.

The National President of the association, Dr Jones Ozuzu, made this known on Wednesday while inaugurating the Taraba Chapter of the association in Jalingo.

Ozuzu said that the aim was to assist individual farmers to have the opportunity to engage in commercial farming which, he said, was being hindered by lack of funds.

He said that individual farmers lacked access to funding from financial institutions.

According to him, the association went into partnership with some foreign organisations and other stakeholders to secure the 600 hectares and other farmlands for the benefit of its members.

“Commercial farmers association is formed to take Nigeria to its economic destination through agriculture.

“Agriculture is the pillar of every nation. Even countries with rocky lands such as Israel and U.S. have achieved food sufficiency with just five per cent of their population into farming.

“We must have to do away with subsistence farming as to catch up with the rest of the world in food production.

“Commercial agriculture is the foundation of every country,” Ozuzu said.

In his remarks, Mr Shitta Isaiah, a Director in the Federal Ministry of Agriculture, expressed the hope that the association would actualise its dream of boosting agriculture in the state.

Isaiah said that the Federal Government had provided farm equipment for farmers in the state at subsidised rates to encourage commercial farming.

He hailed the association for taking agriculture to an enviable height by mobilising people to embrace commercial farming.

Mr Bernard Aji, the Coordinator of the newly inaugurated Taraba Chapter of the association, pledged to mobilise farmers in communities in the state to embrace commercial farming for economic recovery.  

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