Rice Farmers Association of Nigeria (RIFAN), Daura Local Government chapter, Katsina state, has begun the registration of 2,000 large scale rice farmers under the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) anchor borrowers’ programme.
Nura Baure, the chairman of the association said Monday that with the farming scheme, the farmers would be provided with sufficient farming inputs including fertilizer, insecticides, water pumping machines, seedlings and cash, to ensure bumper harvest.
He assured that the distribution of the implements and cash to the registered large scale farmers would begin by the end of February.
The association will be more cautious in the registration of members in the council area, as only genuine farmers will be registered, he said, noting that so far, 300 women have registered for the farming programme. “We recorded significant improvement this time, as only 20 women keyed into the small scale farming borrowers’ programme in 2017,” he explained.
Nura said that 500 metric tons of rice was harvested in the last cropping season under the small scale anchor borrowers’ programme and about 40 per cent of beneficiaries of first tranche disbursement under the small scale farming programme had repaid their loans.
The chairman commended the Federal and Katsina State governments for awarding the reconstruction and renovation of the Sabke dam in Mai’ adua local government area and that of Dabiram dam in Daura local government. Sabke dam will produce 31.6 million litres of water while that of Dabiram will have 15 million litres.
In 2017 1,500 farmers in the area benefited from the CBN anchor borrowers’ agricultural programme.
