Rice farmers in Bayelsa State have applauded the Federal Government for its agricultural development initiatives, especially the Anchor Borrowers\u2019 Programme (ABP).
\nChairman of the state chapter of the Rice Farmers Association in Nigeria (RIFAN), Mr Eziekiel Ogbianko, made the commendation in an interview with newsmen in Yenagoa on Monday.
\nOgbianko said that ABP had provided opportunities for many farmers in Bayelsa State to access farm inputs easily.
\nHe expressed optimism that, with ABP in Bayelsa State, there would be increase in farm produce, especially rice.
\n\u201cThe ABP has come to stay as a life-saving programme for farmers.
\n\u201cMany of our members are benefiting immensely, and we hope to work hard to support the FG\u2019s efforts in ensuring food sufficiency,\u2019\u2019 he said.
\nReports have it that more than 500 rice farmers in Bayelsa State, on April 5, received various farm inputs in the first phase of the ABP.
\nThe inputs distributed to the farmers included 120,000 bags of fertiliser, 400 cans of herbicides and 500 sprayer machines.
\nOghianko noted that the Central Bank of Nigeria flagged-off distribution of the items under the first phase of the 2018 ABP for dry-season farming.
\nHe also noted that ABP was aimed at promoting mass production of rice through a revolving loan to empower millions of farmers.
\n\u201cRight now in the state, we have over 4,000 farmers working on 20,000 hectares of land cleared for the dry season rice farming.
\n\u201cThe farm sites are located at Ondewari and Okpotuwari communities in Southern-Ijaw Local Government Area.\u2019\u2019
\nA rice farmer, Mr John Owei, also hailed the programme in the state, promising that farmers would continue to support the government\u2019s efforts to achieve food security.
\n\u201cThe ABP scheme has created wealthy farmers across the country,\u201d Owei said.
\nA female rice farmer, Mrs Caroline Ebipadie, said that she received fertiliser, a sprayer machine and 10 litres of herbicides.
\nEbipadie said that in spite of some constraints, the programme had given participants a new lease of life.
\nShe added that the ripple effects of ABP provided job opportunities.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Rice farmers in Bayelsa State have applauded the Federal Government for its agricultural development initiatives, especially the Anchor Borrowers\u2019 Programme (ABP). Chairman of the state chapter of the Rice Farmers Association in Nigeria (RIFAN), Mr Eziekiel Ogbianko, made the commendation in an interview with newsmen in Yenagoa on Monday. Ogbianko said that ABP had provided […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":173665,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-173662","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-city-crime"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thetidenewsonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/173662","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thetidenewsonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thetidenewsonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetidenewsonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetidenewsonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=173662"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetidenewsonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/173662\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetidenewsonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/173665"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thetidenewsonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=173662"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetidenewsonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=173662"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetidenewsonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=173662"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}