AADS: Jigawa tasks team to select beneficiaries
NAN-AE-10
Beneficiaries
By Muhammad Nasir Bashir
Dutse, Jan. 18, 2018 (NAN) The Jigawa Ministry of Agriculture and Natural Resources, has dispatched some technical staff to its 27 council areas to select beneficiaries of the Accelerated Agricultural Development Scheme (AADS) on rice farming.
Alhaji Wada’u Sulaiman, the spokesman of the ministry, made this disclosure to the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Dutse on Thursday.
Sulaiman said the Commissioner for Agriculture, Alhaji Kabiru Ali, made the revelation at a meeting with the staff and four Zonal Managers of Jigawa Agricultural and Rural Development Agency (JARDA) in Dutse on Wednesday.
He said the technical staff would work with other stakeholders, including traditional rulers and political leaders at local level in selecting the beneficiaries.
According to him, 6,000 unemployed youths between the ages of 18 and 35 will be enrolled for the scheme.
NAN reports that the beneficiaries would be engaged to cultivate 10,000 hectares of rice under the scheme during the 2018 dry farming season in the state.
He said the Special Assistant to Gov. Muhammad Badaru on Rice Production, Alhaji Jamilu Danmalam, also attended the meeting.
According to him, the exercise will be executed under the Accelerated Agricultural Development Scheme (AADS) introduced by the Federal Government, as part of its youth self-sustenance policy.
He stated that the programme, which is expected to begin in September, would be jointly executed by the State and the Federal Governments.
“Each beneficiary will be supported to cultivate one hectare of rice field under the scheme,’’ he said.
He said the Jigawa Government has already set up Project Monitoring Teams (PMTs) at both the State and Local Government levels to facilitate the execution of the programme.
“The team consists of council chairmen, heads of agricultural departments, the personnel of the state agricultural and development agency, district heads, party and AFAN chairmen as well as youth leaders’’.
According to him, part of the responsibility of the team is to select the beneficiaries of the programme in the state.
He, therefore, urged members of the team to be fair and just in the selection process. (NAN)
MNB/MOL/YEMI
Edited by Mustapha Lamidi/Yemi Idris-Aduloju