FG Registers 2.5m Farmers In N/East Zone – Director

The Federal Ministry
of Agriculture and Rural Development (FMARD), said it registered 2.5million farmers in North-East zone of the country as part of measures to leverage the nation’s agricultural transformation agenda.
The ministry’s Regional Director, North-East Alhaji Arabi Mohammed made the disclosure to The Tide source at the opening of the zone’s regional meeting of State directors in Jalingo, Mohammed said more than 1.5 million of the registered farmers had benefited from the 215,000 tonnes of fertilisers distributed by the ministry. He also said over 13,000 tonnes of improved seeds were distributed to the farmers.
According to him, all the farm inputs provide to the farmers followed the 2.5 percent counterpart funds paid by each of the six states in the zone.
The director said that between 2012 and 2014, more than 13,000 hectares of land in the zone were cultivated under dry season. Mohammed listed the crops grown in the zone to include rice, maize, groundnut and wheat.
He urged youths in the zone to key into the programmes of the ministry to improve their living standard.
Also, the Commissioner for Agriculture and Natural Resources in Taraba State, Alhaji Isa Musa said the state had embraced the Agricultural Transformation Agenda (ATA) of the federal government.
“The Growth Enhancement Support Scheme (GES) or e-wallet System of fertilizer distribution has re-ordered remarkable achievement in the state during the last exercise” he said.
He explained that the system had eliminated middlemen in the process of fertilizer distribution thereby allowing inputs to reach the targeted farmers directly.
Musa further expressed the hope that the scheme would attract more farmers if it was sustained.