Business
Farmers Want Review Of N200bn Agric Loan Modalities
Some farmers on Thursday, in Bauchi, called on the Federal Government to review modalities for disbursing the N200 billion agricultural development fund.
The farmers told newsmen that the government should increase the number of commercial banks instead of the two banks it earmarked to disburse the fund.
They said that the call was imperative to quicken the disbursement and enable smallholder farmers to benefit from the fund and contribute to the development of the sector.
Alhaji Bello Galoji, the Youth Leader, Bauchi State Chapter of the All Farmers Association of Nigeria (AFAN), said the modalities were unfavorable to smallholder farmers.
“We request the inclusion of the Nigeria Agricultural Cooperative and Rural Development Bank (NARCDB) and more banks should be appointed to manage the fund”.
“Besides, the 40 per cent of the fund reserved for small-scale farmers is too small, when compared with their output to the nation’s food security,” Galoji said.
He said the sharing formula of 60 per cent allocated to large-scale commercial farmers and 40 per cent to smallholder farmer adopted by government was not equitable.
Galoji urged the government to speed up the processes for accessing the fund to enable members of the association make effective utilisation of the money.
According to him, the cropping season has already commenced and this is the right time to disburse the fund to farmers.
Malam Ibrahim Ahmad, a maize farmer, also urged the state government to educate farmers on the facility to enable them utilise it for the purpose for which it was meant.
It would be recalled that the Federal Government had approved the fund in 2008 to boost large scale commercial agricultural production in the country.