NAN-AE-11
Farming
Dutse, Feb. 21, 2017 (NAN) Gov. Muhammad Badaru of Jigawa on Tuesday said
26,049 farmers had been registered on cluster farming of various crops introduced by his administration.
The governor made this known at the launch of disbursement of farm inputs and assets to youths and women by Fadama III in Ringim.
Badaru, who was represented by the Deputy Governor, Alhaji Ibrahim Hassan, said
6,550 were rice farmers, 6,532 cultivated sesame, 1,975 registered as groundnut farmers, 40 for soybeans and 10,952 farmers currently partaking in wheat farming across the state.
According to him, 20,215 hectares of land is used by the farmers for the cultivation of rice, groundnut, sesame, wheat and soybeans.
The governor added that the state government spent N356.4 million to buy inputs and Agro chemicals to distribute to farmers on the cluster arrangement, noting that N233.4 million had so far been recovered from beneficiaries.
He assured the farmers of government’s support in ensuring that they were not
shortchanged by off-takers or record any loss in the programme.
The Fadama III National Coordinator, Mr Tayo Adewumi, commended the state government for the support.
Adewumi disclosed that in the last one and half years of the present administration in Jigawa, N200 million had been received from government as counterpart fund for the programme.
He noted that 5,000 farmers, including 470 youths and women would benefit from production and processing of rice and sorghum, as well as assets across the state. (NAN)
MS/HA
=======
Edited by Hadiza Mohammed-Aliyu