As part of efforts to increase rice production in the country, 619 farmers have received various farm inputs from the federal government in collaboration with the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD)
At a flag-off of the distribution, the state program coordinator, Dr. Unice Adgidzi said that the distribution is aimed at boosting dry season rice production in the state.
“Considering the fast increasing global population, the total reliance on wet season. We swung into action by initiating dry season intervention aimed at educating farmers on dry season and supporting them with imputes.
“We are distributing a total of 738 bags of fertilizers, 6.150kg of improved rice seeds and 246 liters of selective and nonselective herbicides to 48 farmers organizations across Lafia, Doma, Nasarawa Eggon, and Karu local councils.”
The coordinator urged beneficiaries to utilize the imputes effectively to improve the production of rice to feed the growing population.
In a remark, Abubakar Dan’ Akano, state commissioner of agric, commended the unwavering commitments of the FGN/IFAD-Value Chain Development Program(VCDP), Nasarawa in strengthening rice and cassava value chains as well as improving the livelihoods of smallholders’ rice and cassava farmers on a sustainable basis.
The commissioner assured the state government’s readiness to provide all necessary support towards achieving the key objectives of the projects.
A Beneficiary, Audu Musa, from Karu testified that VCDP in the state trained some selected farmers , gave them seedlings and how to use them.
“Now we grow those seeds both for commercial and consumption and we can farm in all season now. We thank VCDP for the training and empowerment.”
