FADAMA: Don Laments Neglect Of Farmers

A lecturer, in the Department of  Sociology, University of Port Harcourt Dr Steve Wordu  has said that local farmers are short-changed in the FADAMA programme in Rivers State.

Dr Wordu, who spoke to our correspondent in a telephone interview recently said local government chairmen were not helping the local farmers in that direction.

He expressed worry that most local government chairmen in the state were not paying their N2 million counterpart funding.

He said since the funds meant to enable the World Bank and the Food and Agriculture organization, FAO to support the local farmers, the chairmen should live up to expectation.

According to him, but the situation in Rivers State is that most local government chairmen refuse to pay .

“Because of that, many farmers in the local communities are not benefiting in the World Bank agric gesture”, he said.

Describing the problem as serious, Dr Wordu further urged defaulting local government area chairmen to pay up in order to ensure that the local farmers benefit from FADAMA and World Bank.

“What is N2 million that a local government chairman cannot pay to enable farmers in your locality to have micro-credit from World Bank.

“The development is affecting rural agricultural activities “, he said.