Agriculture
Farmers To Benefit From e-Wallet GES
In efforts geared toward the reversal of unwholesome acts capable of sabotaging farmers in accessing agricultural inputs in the country, the federal government has put in place an E-wallet Growth Enhancement Support Scheme, (GES) to checkmate the trend.
The State Director, Federal Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development, Rivers State, Dr Umoh Sampson who gave the indication in an address he presented on the occasion of training programme for enumerators / supervisors for 2013 farmers registration in Port Harcourt said the programme entails the use of E-wallet input delivery strategy process which enables farmers to get inputs directly.
Mr Sampson who expressed regret that the federal government Agricultural Transformation Agenda (ATA) which adopted a community value chain approach of selected commodities faced avoidable challenges.
According to him, one of the major challenges which was responsible for the low agricultural productivity was the inability of farmers in accessing agricultural inputs.
He further explained that one of the important requirement for the GES was the proper identification of the farmers which led to the National Farmers’ Registration Exercise and Farmers’ Data which has been captured into the central data bank by the Federal Department of Rural Development.
On the successes recorded so far, in the programme in the State, Mr Sampson said there were some challenges which have been identified that would be addressed in 2013 GES.
He named such challenges to include multiple registrations, inaccurate data entry by data entry clerks, late commencement of GES among others despite training conducted for stakeholders involved.
It would be recalled that in an attempt to ensure that farmers get agricultural inputs at affordable prices, both the federal and State governments in the past have been subsidizing inputs, especially fertiliser and seeds.
However, the Agro-input supply chain was bedeviled with malpractices which hindered the actual and intended farmers to benefit from the inputs.
Federal Government and the Ogun State Government, on Wednesday, distributed farm inputs to farmers as part of effort to address food security challenge.
The State Director, Federal Ministry of Agriculture and Food Security, Dr. Toyin Ayo-Ajayi, during the flag-off ceremony of Inputs Redemption Under The National Agricultural Growth Scheme-Agro Pocket (NAGS-AP), in Ogun State, disclosed that beneficiaries of the gesture were primarily rice, maize and cassava farmers across the State.
Ayo-Ajayi commended the Ogun State Government for partnering with the government at the centre for the effort in supporting farmers with inputs that would bring about yieldings for local consumption and likely exportation.
She noted that government is supporting rice, cassava and maize farmers with inputs worth N212,000; N189,000 and N186,000 respectively.
The Permanent Secretary in the State Ministry of Agriculture, Mrs Kehinde Jokotoye, who represented the Commissioner in the Ministry, Bolu Owotomo, stated that traditional farmers are critical in food production, hence the need to encourage and support them with inputs that would bring about desired results during harvesting.
Owotomo said: “Let us make good use of this opportunity, so that the success of this phase will make farmers benefit more from the state and federal governments of Nigeria.”
Earlier, State Coordinator, Federal Ministry of Agriculture and Food Security, Dr. Oluwatoyin Ayo-Ajayi, appreciated the present administration for partnering with the federal government for the initiative, adding that the programme is designed to support farmers at the grassroots level in cassava, rice and maize with inputs such as, seeds, pesticides, herbicides and fertilizers, to boost their production and enhance their livelihood.