Dennis Erezi
The National Agricultural Development Fund (NADF) has concluded plans to support 5,000 Ginger Farmers in Kaduna State with free farming inputs.
NADF launched the Ginger Recovery, Advancement and Transformation for Economy Empowerment (GRATE), a Federal Government initiative that was part of the Ginger Blight Task Force of the Federal Ministry of Agriculture and Food Security commenced at a stakeholders engagement and screening exercise in seven Councils across Kaduna State.
Speaking at the stakeholders’ engagement and inputs disbursement to affected ginger farmers, Samuel Aende, a representative of NADF said the GRATE team is engaging and screening ginger farmers in Kachia, Jaba, Kagarko, Zangon Kataf, Kaura, Jema’a, and Santa Local Government Areas.
“After the Stakeholders’ engagement and screening of farmers across the 7 LGAs, each farmer is expected to receive; Four bags 50kg of NPK 20.10.10 fertilizer, 2 bags of 50kg of Urea fertilizer, one bag of 25kg bag of Maize and Sorghum hybrid seeds and per hectare dosage of Herbicides and crop protection products including Fungicide, Insecticide 2for crop rotation,” he added.
According the Aende, the aim of rejuvenating Ginger farming after the devastating effect of the Blight epidemic in 2023 affects Kaduna, Plateau, Nasarawa States, and the FCT with substantial funding for improved and better Ginger yield.
In his remarks, David Jonathan from Kaduna Agricultural Development Agency (KADA) noted that the ginger support program launched by NADF, in partnership with our agency, KADA aims to bolster the ginger value chains and improve the livelihoods of our ginger producers. KADA is proud to be a part of this effort, as it aligns perfectly with our core mission of empowering rural agricultural communities.
While stating that KADA’s unwavering commitment to work closely with NADF to ensure the success and sustainability of the initiative, Jonathan recalled that Governor Uba Sani recently flagged off support initiative for smallholder farmers, facilitated by the Federal Government through the National Agricultural Development Fund NADF and in collaboration with the Kaduna State Government through KADA.
Also speaking to journalists, the president of National Ginger Farmers Association, Nuhu Dauda thanked President Bola Ahmed Tinubu for his quick intervention to rescue ginger farmers who lost their crops to epidemic in year 2023. According to him, “should by mistake this ginger pandemic erupted and Tinubu was not the president, we would have been in a serious trouble.”
The Representative of Kachia council chairman, Victoria Saidu who doubled as the director of forestry also said they are working round the clock In partnership with the state government and NADF to ensure a good yield from growth and harvest of ginger
She urged the participants and beneficiaries to make “judicious use of the information and inputs disbursed to them, so that they can make profits.”
Meanwhile, one of the beneficiaries, Mrs Gloria Thomas thanked NADF and the Kaduna state government for quick intervention for the ginger farmers.
She lamented that “majority of ginger farmers who borrowed money from Comercial banks to cultivate ginger lost a lot of money to the epidemic and are yet to recover. I must say that this intervention is coming at the right time and I commend government for that. I believe this is a good head start for ginger farmers.”
