Edo State Government said a total of 35,000 farmers were registered for the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) Anchor Borrower Programme (ABP) in the state.
Bashir Kadiri, permanent secretary, Ministry of Agriculture and Natural Resources gave the hint in an interview with BusinessDay in Benin-City recently.
Kadiri said in the current ABP farmers in the state will embark in the cultivation of cassava, maize and rearing of livestock with the hope of adding rice production in the nearest future.
According to him, there are about 2000 cooperative societies in the state and each is expected to cultivate a minimum of one hectare and a maximum of five hectares.
He added that verification exercise had already been carried out in two local government areas while the exercise was yet to be done in others.
He stated that the verification exercise was to authenticate the claims of the farmers whether they are genuine and possess the actual hectare of farmland.
The permanent secretary who explained that the programme was mainly for smallholders farmers added that the CBN will disburse money directly to the farmer.
He said the duty of the state government was to verify the claims of the cooperatives and send its final assessment to CBN who will then deal directly with the farmers upon submission of their Bank Verification Number (BVN).
Kadiri opined that the programme would open the window for agricultural development as well as boost the cultivation of maize, cassava and livestock rearing in the state.
He however enjoined the benefitting farmers to make use of the fund judiciously noting that the programme has the potential of transforming them from smallholders to large scale farmers.
Loans to be accessed by the state government are the N6billion CBN anchor borrower loan facility, N5billion to fund agro-project in the state and the Federal Government Special Intervention on Fertilizer programme.
IDRIS UMAR MOMOH, Benin
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