The Growth Enhancement Support (GES) scheme will create 8.7 million jobs and earn rural farmers N289 billion in 2013, Ibrahim Abdullahi, the managing director, Maslaha Seeds Limited, has said.
Abdullahi said this in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Abuja on Tuesday.
According to him, the scheme will not only create jobs and increase the livelihood of farmers but has already increased the production of seeds companies from 1,500 tons to 5,000 tons.
“In seeds production, we normally engage out-growers; out-growers are farmers carefully selected and trained on seeds production by the seeds companies to produce certified seeds.
“Before this programme, we used to produce between 1, 500 tons and 2,000 tons of seeds per annum but with this programme, we have increased our production to 5,000 tons; so we employed more out-growers.
“So many people were employed because when you produce the seeds from the farm, you load the seeds to the collection centre and you offload it there.
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