At least 8,077 Taraba farmers have been supported with agro-inputs by the Federal Government assisted International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD) Value Chain Development Programme (VCDP) for rice and cassava farmers between 2015 and 2019.
Fertilizers, agro chemicals, sprayers, rice seedlings and cassava stems were distributed to benefiting farmers at the occasion.
State programme coordinator, Iremia Musa, disclosed this during the flag off of input distribution for 2019 main cropping season in Sunkani, Ardo-kola Local Government Area of the state.
Musa, who said 1,781 farmers were selected to benefit from the support in 2019, added that the agency was supporting benefiting farmers with 50 percent of the total cost of inputs amounting to N64, 542,500 in this year’s cropping season.
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“This exercise is to support our farmers on a matching grant basis of 50 percent contribution from farmers paid directly to the accredited input dealers at the point of collection while the programme pays the balance of 50 percent thereafter.
“This is just one of the many supports provided to our farmers to move them from an average 1.5 to 5.9 metric tones per hectare for rice during raining season and from 2.5 to 7.89 irrigated farming,” he said.
The programme manager said farmers had been linked up with off-takers to buy off their produce to avoid a situation where they would be stranded after harvest.
Permanent Secretary Taraba State Ministry of Agriculture, Jeremiah Danjuma, in a remark appreciated the efforts of IFAD-VCDP and the state government for the input support to farmers to boost rice and cassava production in the state.
He noted that the state government would continue to support genuine farmers in the state in her quest to put Taraba in her rightful place in the agriculture map of Nigeria.
Danjuma appealed to the benefiting farmers not to sell the inputs but use them for the purpose intended.
One of the beneficiaries, Fatima Abdullahi appreciated the government for the efforts in supporting farmers to boost agriculture in the state.
