Nasarawa State Coordinator of Fadama III, Alhaji Abdullahi Alkali, has attributed the slow progress of the project to the inability of the state to remit its counterpart funding.

In an interview with newsmen in Keffi, Alkali said government had only paid N26 million in 2008 as against N56.4 million it should contribute while it has not paid any money in 2009 and 2010.

Alkali said payment of counterpart funding was one of the conditions for the state to draw from the $250 million grant by the World Bank over the next five years.

He said so far only NI0.2 million was disbursed to 15 user groups in 13 local government areas of the state, adding that 1,950 user groups made up of 341,000 farmers were being targeted.

He also attributed the slow pace of disbursement to the attitude of the users who have so far failed to make their own contribution in spite a sensitisation programme carried out in the last two years.

The coordinator said the failure of farmers to make their own contributions could be due to poverty prevalent in the communities.

“We are doing all that is necessary to ensure that the people pay their contributions. We know they are very poor to afford the 10 per cent which was reduced by the government from the initial 30 per cent,” Alkali said.

A beneficiary of the project, Mr Bazouka Achemary, lamented that in spite of agriculture being one of the 13-point agenda of the state government there was nothing on ground to show for it.

He called for a review of the Fadama project in the state because it was not yielding the desired results because there was not enough fund from the government to complement the few contributions by the beneficiaries.