NAN-AE-13
Loan
Dutse, Oct. 31, 2016 (NAN) The Jigawa Government said on Monday that it has disbursed N650 million as soft loans to some cash crop farmers in 2016 in the state.
The Commissioner for Agriculture and Natural resources, Alhaji Kabir Ali, made this known in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Dutse.
Ali explained that beneficiaries were mostly youths and were grouped into clusters by the government.
According to him, the cluster operation is mainly on production of rice, soya beans, groundnut and wheat.
Ali said that the farmers had already started harvesting and some of them had started paying back the loan to the government.
The commissioner said that the loan could be paid in cash or in kind by giving out their produce equivalent to the money collected.
Ali told NAN that the same gesture would be extended to dry season farmers in the state.
He said that the present administration had concluded plan to make production of rice all season in the state because of high demand for the product.
Ali said that 50,000 hectares of wheat would be cultivated in the state in 2016 season and 40,000 farmers had so far been registered to participate.
The commissioner noted that the grouping of farmers into clusters had been applauded by all stakeholders in the sector and government would work to improve and sustain it.
He also commended the efforts of extension workers for the success of the programme in the state. (NAN)
MS/ORO/AFA
Edited by Razak Owolabi/Felix Ajide
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