Eighteen thousand farmers would receive farming inputs under the Central Bank of Nigeria Anchor Borrower Programme’s rice production during the 2021/2022 dry season in Taraba State.
The chairman of Rice Farmers Association of Nigeria, (RIFAN) Taraba State branch, Tanko Bobo Andame, disclosed this in an interview with North East Trust in Jalingo.
He said 18,000 farmers would embark on rice farming during the 2021/2022 dry season farming across the state and would be provided with rice seed, fertiliser, herbicide among other inputs soon.
The chairman said the farmers have been grouped under clusters and their BVN and account numbers are being verified.
He said ward heads are to identify the farmers in their respective domains in order to make recovery easy.
Tanko Andame further told North East Trust that rice farmers in Karim Lamido Local Government Area suffered losses during last year’s dry season because of attack by pests.
He said, however, that pest resistance rice seed was procured by the association and will be distributed to the farmers to avoid a repeat.
He said it is hoped that the farmers would witness bumper harvest this dry season to augment the poor harvest some of them experienced during the wet season.
Meanwhile, a large-scale farmer, in the state, Yarima Isa Tafida, has advised dry season farmers not to accept loans from speculators who charged over 45 per cent interest.
He said speculators have been exploiting farmers in the rural areas by collecting payment of cash loan they granted with farm produce.
Yarima Isa said the speculators are taking advantage of the poor financial stand of the rural farmers to exploit them and therefore appealed to state and federal governments to ensure that all facilities meant for farming reached rural farmers.
