Cotton farmers, under the auspices of the National Cotton Association of Nigeria (NACOTAN), have pledged to improve production and participation in the cotton business in next year’s farming season.
The National Secretary of the association, Alhaji Hassan Buhari stated this in a statement issued yesterday in Gombe, to mark the 2021 World Cotton Day.
He said the increase in cotton production will raise the availability of qualitative cotton, generate employment opportunities for youth and help to improve the country’s economy.
He further stated that it also helps to revive the moribund industries, in addition to providing the much-needed foreign exchange for the country.
Buhari noted in particular, the intervention of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) to over 28,000 cotton farmers in the Northeast sub-region, where a N6.4bn loan was disbursed to them during the 2020/2021 farming season.
According to him, the intervention from the CBN had encouraged cotton farmers in the sub-region and created jobs for thousands of youths, as well as resuscitated cotton ginneries in the area.
He, therefore, called on farmers to embrace cotton farming, which he said if properly and generally embraced, “Will serve as a major source of livelihoods and incomes for many rural dwellers and would be a steady employment source to some of the poorest rural areas in Nigeria.”
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