The Federal Government is to distribute small mechanised equipment for harvesting rice to farmers in Anambra state in the coming weeks.
The Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development, Chief Audu Ogbe disclosed this during an interactive meeting with a high powered Federal Government Agric Revolution Delegation and Members of the Anambra State’s Chapter of Rice Farmers Association of Nigeria.
The meeting, held at the Omor Rice field in Ayamelum Council Area of the state was part of activities marking the recent fact finding visit to Anambra state by a Federal Government delegation led by the Agric Minister.
According to the Minister, the equipment which will be brought in the next three weeks include lawn mowers, threshers and milling machines of about 5 to 10 tonnes capacity each.
Chief Ogbe revealed that his Ministry will meet with the Federal Ministry of Water Resources to work out modalities for the rehabilitation of the Lower Anambra/Imo River Basin Irrigation project at Omor to provide irrigation services to the farmers for all year round rice farming.
The Minister thanked the State’s Rice farmers for keying into the vision of the Federal Government to achieve food sufficiency in rice production, assuring them that they have chosen a means of livelihood that is sustainable and holds the key to the future.
Gov Willie Obiano in his remarks, said farmers in the State were now proud of engaging in Agriculture because of the way he has repositioned the sector.
He expressed delight that through the structure which his administration had put in place to coordinate the disbursement of the N1.5billion which CBN provided earlier for Small and Medium Scale Enterprises, all the monies have been recovered and appealed to the apex bank to positively consider raising its support up to N5 billion.
This he noted, would ensure that more farmers get support to boost their operations and contribute more meaningfully to the quest for food sufficiency in the country.
The Governor of Central Bank of Nigeria, Mr Godwin Emefiele appealed to the farmers to organize themselves in cooperatives to be eligible to benefit from the CBN’s single digit interest rate anchor-borrowers programme, and commended Gov Obiano for making agriculture attractive to the people.
Earlier in his address, the State Chairman of the Association, Mr Udoka Egwuatu acknowledged that farmers in the state are presently recording bumper harvests due to the support of the State Government especially in the area of providing improved rice seedlings and appealed to the Federal Government to show genuine commitment towards reactivating the Lower Anambra/Imo River basin irrigation project.
The farmers presented bags of “Anambra Rice” to the Minister, the CBN Governor and the Kebbi State Governor, Alhaji Abubakar Bagudu who were part of the delegation.
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