Economic diversification: 100,000 Plateau farmers to benefit from FG’s N40 billion loan

No fewer than 100,000 farmers from Plateau State who registered for the 2016 Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) Anchor Borrowers’ Programme (ABP) of the Federal Government are to benefit from its N40 billion loan, Linda Barau, the Agriculture Commissioner, has said.
Mrs. Barau who made the disclosure in Jos at an agricultural stakeholders’ harmonization meeting on Monday said the program was in line with the Federal and state governments’ desire to diversify the economy from dependence on oil and make agriculture the economy’s driver.
According to her, the ABP initiative was aimed at driving the state’s economy through agriculture through the provision of single digit interest loans to small scale farmers in order to boost food production and also create employment.
The Commissioner noted that Governor Simon Lalong had since identified agriculture as the future hope of Plateau State’s economy and accorded it the priority it deserves accordingly so as to turn around its current dwindling economic fortunes.
She also announced that government would soon introduce a price control mechanism in all the 17 local governments of the state so as to curtail the danger that middle-men pose to local farmers.”Lack of adequate information has crippled the ongoing government registration of farmers, but very soon government will hold town hall meeting in all the 17 LGAs to enlighten and teach farmers to prepare for the challenges of borrowing.
“Government, therefore, urges the chairmen of the various agricultural products in the state to educate their fellow farmers on the importance of agriculture and discourage them from selling their farm produce before the harvesting period expires,” she said.
In his remarks, Mr Joshua Bitrus, the state Chairman of the farmers’ commodities promotion interest group, called on the state government to put in place concrete measures to buy all their crops after harvest in order stem post-harvest losses and to also save farmers from the scourge of middlemen.
It would be recalled that the CBN/FG Anchor Borrowers Programme was pushed by 14 states, namely, Kebbi, Sokoto, Niger, Kaduna, Katsina, Jigawa, Kano, Zamfara, Admawa, Plateau, Lagos, Ogun, Cross-River and Ebonyi for rice and wheat farmers to advance their status from small holder farmers to commercial or large growers.
The programme which was launched in Kebbi State by President Muhammadu Buhar on November 17, 2015, aims to empower at least 600,000 farmers in the rice (100,000), oil palm (100,000), wheat (100,000), cotton (200,000) and fish (100,000) value chains in the next five years, and further create at least 1,000,000 direct and indirect jobs in the processing segment of the value chains of selected commodities including rice (300,000), oil palm (200,000), wheat (100,000), cotton (300,000) and fish (200,000) in the next five years.
ABP pilot scheme aims at creating economic linkages between over 600,000 registered smallholder farmers and reputable large-scale processors with a view to increasing agricultural output and significantly improving capacity utilization of integrated mills, for which the CBN had set aside N40 billion from the N220 billion Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises Development Fund at a 9% interest rate.
It is also intended at closing the gap between the levels of local rice production and domestic consumption, as well as complement the Growth Enhancement Support (GES) Scheme of the Federal Ministry of Agriculture by graduating GES farmers from subsistence farming to commercial production.