Hope Rises for Kogi Farners

A huge boost has come the way of farmers in Kogi  State with no fewer than 10,000 of them earmarked to benefit from the N750 million agricultural credit loan facilities sourced by the Kogi State Government in collaboration with the Bank of Agriculture (BoA) as part of the agricultural transformation agenda of the state Governor, Idris Wada.

Commissioner for Agriculture and Natural Resources, Mr. Zacchaeus Olu Atte, who disclosed this in a chat with THISDAY in Lokoja, during the celebration of the 2014 World Food Day, noted that the farmers had been clearly selected across the 21 local government areas of the state in line with the directives of the state governor that only genuine farmers should benefit from the loan scheme.

According to him, this year World Food Day with the theme: ‘family farming feeding the world’, is to raise the profile of the family and smallholder farmers which focus world’s attention on the significant role of family farming in eradicating hunger and poverty through the provision of food security, nutrition and improving livelihoods.

Atte pointed out that in line with the theme of this year world food day, Wada’s administration has keyed into the agricultural transformation agenda of the federal government by sourcing for the agricultural credit facilities to improve farming in the state.

He added that: “Farmers have nothing to do with poverty as farming is now a big business, and that is why the state government had put in place all necessary policies and plans to enable our farmers to improve in their farming which in turn would improve the economic fortune of the state.

“This time around is not business as usual. Before now, the loan will be shared among those who are not farmers leaving the real farmers out of the scheme but this time, we made sure that only real farmers benefited from the loan through their respective local government areas.

“We use this system because at the local government level, the people know who the real farmers among themselves so if a non-farmer name is included in the list of the loan beneficiaries, immediately the people will challenge us based on the fact that they know who is the real farmers among them are.”

Also, he said: “For those who are involved in large and medium scale farming, the state government has signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) to provide about N1biilion which will be use to develop farm value chain enterprises in the state.”

Atte therefore noted that: “Wada is a farmer-friendly governor who had set the ball rolling for food security in the state, and I am bold to say that the state has fully key into the agricultural revolution of the present administration of President Goodluck Jonathan.”

However, he appealed to the benefiting farmers to repay the loan as at when due in order for the next batch of farmers to also benefit from the facilities.

Noting that the ministry has put in place strategy to monitor the farmers in and out of their farms in order to ensure that the loan is use for the purpose intended.