1,390 rice farmers get seedlings, fertilisers, pesticides in Kaduna

Rice Farmers Association of Nigeria (RIFAN), Kaduna State chapter has distributed rice seedlings, fertilisers and pesticides to 1,390 farmers across the three senatorial zones for the 2021 wet season farming.

The association said beneficiaries were picked in areas that were not or were less affected by banditry.

Thus, 900 rice farmers in Zone one Senatorial District were beneficiaries, while 190 and 300 rice farmers were beneficiaries from zone two and three respectively.

Speaking during the distribution of the agricultural inputs, RIFAN State chairman, Alhaji Muhammad Umar Numbu, said the inputs were loans which the beneficiaries have to pay either in cash or commodity exchange during harvest season.

He said, “On behalf of Kaduna State Rice Farmers Association, you are welcome to the 2021 wet season special project.

“As it is today we are operating in the three Senatorial zones of Kaduna State.

“In zone one we have about three clusters, in zone two we have a cluster and zone three we have a cluster. And it goes like this; in zone one we have 900 farmers, 900 hectares, so it is one farmer, one hectare. They are the beneficiaries of the distribution of this input

“We are distributing fertilisers, 30kg of improved rice seedling and inputs and pesticides. This is to ensure the boost in rice production in Kaduna State under the RIFAN anchor borrowers programme.

“We have coordinators in the three Senatorial zones to ensure proper distribution of the inputs. In two we have 190 farmers. Each farmer is entitled to a hectare. In zone three we have 300 farmers.

“Each farmer to a hectare. But because of insecurity in zone three, we only limit the cluster to Sanga local government area. Sanga has 300 clusters.

“And by November we will start proper registration of farmers for dry season farming. We will keep these farmers and monitor their farming activities in fertilisers and inputs application from today till harvest.

“At harvest time RIFAN will receive its loan payment 100 per cent. We pray that the farmers succeed because if they succeed they will have a surplus. We will collect our own. And if the farmers choose to sell the rice to us, we will buy them instantly. If you are not selling we allow you to take it home.

“We know what is happening in Kaduna State in terms of security challenges, so the cluster we marked are free from insecurity. There are no many security challenges in those areas. We pray that insecurity should be curtailed in those areas as farmers go into activities.”

The RIFAN chairman also recalled that “With the help of the National President of RIFAN, in collaboration with the yearning of the president of the federal republic of Nigeria, Muhammadu Buhari, that Nigeria should be able to feed the nation, in terms of food production, and so we in RIFAN have taken over rice production in the country and mostly in Kaduna State.”

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1,390 rice farmers get seedlings, fertilisers, pesticides in Kaduna

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