Abia Disburses N1bn Loan To Farmers

Commissioner for Agriculture in Abia,  Chief Ike Onyenweaku, has said that the state government will disburse the N1 billion loan to farmers in the state during this farming season.

Onyenweaku said this in Ohafia, Abia, during a sensitisation tour of Arochukwu and Ohafia Local Government Areas as part of conditions for the exercise.

“We expect that the beneficiaries of the loan will empower others by way of employment so that the multiplier effect in the state’s economy would be felt,” he said.

The Commissioner said   “only genuine farmers will benefit from this largess”.

“The condition of the loan is such that farmers will not find it cumbersome to re-pay.

“We shall set up crack monitoring committees that will assess claims of prospective beneficiaries to ascertain whether they are real or portfolio farmers.

“The committee will also physically inspect farmlands of prospective beneficiaries to make sure that their claims are authentic,’’ he said.

Onyenweaku said that the ultimate aim was to ensure that the Agricultural Transformation Agenda of the Federal Government succeeded in Abia.

A Consultant of the scheme in Abia, Chief Ike Onyenweaku, appealed to farmers in the state to make good use of the opportunity “because this is the first time this is happening in Abia’’.

Wachukwu, who is the President of Nigeria Association of Small-Scale Industrialists, said, “when this is utilised effectively it will bring an economic transformation to Abia within the next two years’’.

Meanwhile, farmers in the state have expressed reservations over the success of the scheme considering the decay of rural infrastructure across the state.

Chairman, All Farmers Association of Nigeria (AFAN) in Arochukwu, Chief Omeji Origa,  said that good roads were a major condition necessary for the success of the scheme.

“All we need is mobilisation and we shall change this ugly situation and reach the farmers in their interior locations. We need good roads to transport our produce to areas of scarcity,” he said.

Origa noted with regrets that “our palm plantations and mills have gone moribund.

“The cocoa fields are no more in existence while our rice farms and mills are non-functional and forgotten.”