Director Expresses Optimism Over Farmers Enhancement Scheme Success

The Director of Federal Fertiliser in the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development, Mr Akinbolawa Osho, on Monday expressed optimism that the Growth Enhancement Support (GES) scheme for farmers would succeed.

Osho expressed the optimism in an interview with newsmen in Abuja.

The scheme is an initiative of the Federal Government aimed at subsidising the cost of major agricultural inputs such as fertiliser and seeds for farmers in the country.

Under the scheme, distribution of fertiliser will be done through the e-wallet system, where farmers will have to register with their mobile phones before they can access farm inputs.

He recalled that the National Council on Agriculture in Abuja in 2011 agreed to roll out the scheme from the southern states.

“Based on that we had to fast track all our implementation plans to make sure that we can at least attend to the southern states and that was why we were able to launch out for the south on the 30th of April, in Ekiti.

“Our plan actually is that we move up North say by the end of May; first week of June we start attending to the Northern states.’’

He, however, said the ministry was prepared to roll out the scheme in states that were ready to participate in the scheme.

“We are not even distinguishing between South and North anymore. As the state are showing us that they are ready to go ahead and roll out the GES in their states, we just go and attend to that state.

“I can tell you presently now, that even in Katsina state, the cotton seed farmers; they are already getting their GES on the seeds because of the fact that if we don’t attend to them now it will affect the cotton seed programme.’’

He appealed to state governments to sensitise farmers in their domain to the scheme.

Osho said that the Federal Government had been broadcasting jingles on radio and television to sensitise farmers to the scheme.

The director said the ministry had introduced scratch cards to cater for farmers without mobile phones and those residing in areas without a functional mobile network.

He said that Federal Government targeted five million farmers in the first phase of the scheme out of the 60 million in the country.

He said that the five million was based on the strategic plan the ministry have for the scheme.