Farmers commend Nigeria on farm inputs

The Gombe Chapter of All Farmers Association of Nigeria(AFAN) has commended the Federal Government on the distribution of farm inputs to farmers in the state.
Alhaji Modibbo Sadiq, the State’s AFAN Chairman, gave the commendation on the sideline of the distribution of potato input to 600 farmers on Saturday in Gombe.
Sadiq stated that with the various interventions of the Federal Government in terms of inputs and trainings to farmers, the problem of food insecurity would be addressed in the state and the country at large.
According to him, ten days ago, 150 rice farmers received certified rice seeds, bags of NPK fertiliser and Urea, litres of soil amender, pesticide and herbicides from the Federal Government.
Sadiq , who said that farmers in the state were excited about the interventions by the Federal Government, noted that “inputs are now expensive, hence the free inputs will go a long way in reducing poverty among the farmers”.
On the potato input distributed to 600 farmers, Sadiq said the input would help farmers in terms of boosting productivity and improving “the nutritional content of meals since the variety is rich in Vitamin A.’’
He added that his association was working with critical stakeholders to ensure processing and marketing of potato, adding that such would further improve farmers’ incomes.
Sadiq further commended the officials of both the Federal and the state ministries of agriculture for ensuring transparency in the distribution of inputs to ensure that real farmers benefit.
On of the beneficiaries of the free potato, Malam Abubakar Ibrahim, said that the training that accompanied the distribution was eye-opening.
“ I had been practicing the wrong agricultural methodology while cultivating the crop, Ibrahim said”.
While commending the Federal for inputs, Ibrahim appealed for more of such kind of trainings especially in rural communities for more farmers to benefit.
“ For me the training is wonderful because we have been farming traditionally without knowledge of what is happening in modern farming.
“Today I learnt that some of the issues we have in poor harvest were as a result of poor agricultural practices and continuous use of old techniques.”
“ Another thing I learnt is the issue of record keeping during farming.
“Our facilitators told us that keeping record will help us know what we invested and how to market our commodity, Ibrahim said”.
600 farmers were trained and given 12, 000 bundles of potato vines at the event.