IFAD Empowers 2,000 Farmers In Taraba

No fewer than 2.242 rice and cassava farmers in Taraba State have received fertilizer, herbicides and other farm inputs from the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFADA), under its Value Chain Development Programme (VCDP).

According to a release made available to The Tide by AgroNigeria on Tuesday, Taraba State IFAD’s Programme Coordinator, Irimiya Musa, said that the VCDP thrives the matrix of development partners aim to support local farmers through its matching grant system to boost food crop production in 2016.

According to Musa, a total of 7,514 bags of NPK fertilizer, 2,563 bags of urea and 8,564 litres of herbicides were circulated to the farmers in fire selected LGAs of the state.

The beneficiaries, according to the statement include Wukari, Takun, Gassol, Ardokola and Karim-Lado LGAs.

Speaking on specific statistics according to each LGA, Musa gave the LGA distribution of the beneficiary farmers as Wukari – 603, Takun – 478, Gassol-556, Ado-Kola-503 and Karim-Lado – 101.

Explaining the matching grant system, the IFAD state coordinator stated that it was a scheme in which individual farmers from the various cooperatives provided half of the required inputs needed for the farming season while IFAD provides the other half.

A rice farmer from Nwaddah in Karim-Lamido, Mr Atthanisus Maiyaiki, who benefited from the inputs support of IFAD-VCDP through the matching grant system told newsmen how the scheme helped him to grow his rice farm.

“The Programme assisted me with six bags of fertilizer-four NPK and two urea and I added six bags which were applied on two hectares of rice farm, which is doing well,” he said.