ILORIN: Enumerating Farmers For Effective Planning

The administration of Governor Bukola Saraki in Kwara State has been noted for its special interest in farming since it welcomed and offered land to displaced white farmers from Zimbabwe in 2003. Determined to sustain the leading role in this sector, the government has embarked on a census of farmers throughout the length and breadth of the state. So far, about 100,000 farmers have reportedly been enumerated.

Addressing journalists in Ilorin, the Commissioner for Agriculture and Natural Resources, Prof. Mohammed Gana Yisa, noted that the exercise would enable the state to get accurate data for effective and efficient planning for all farmers in the state. He said: “With adequate data, we would be able to plan ahead of time, the quantity of input like fertiliser, insecticide, herbicide and seeds required for agriculture.”

Prof. Yisa expressed dismay at how the procurement and distribution of fertiliser had been abused in the past, with the commodity prevented from reaching the rural farmers who are in dire need of it––not only in the state but throughout the country. To put a check on the activities of middle-men, Yisa disclosed that the National Food Reserve Agency in collaboration with the International Centre for Soil Fertility and Agriculture, IFDC, came up with a programme called Fertiliser Voucher Scheme, with Kano, Kaduna, Bauchi, Taraba and Kwara as pilot states. The scheme, he said, would be extended to other states in due course.
“Under the scheme, which is supported by IFDC, the participating states will identify the number of farmers that will benefit from the scheme and determine whether to give each farmer three or five bags of fertiliser, having paid the subsidy of N2000 per bag of fertiliser for the farmers to IFDC,” he added.
The farmers, Yisa said, can only collect fertiliser with their vouchers on payment of the balance on a bag of fertiliser, adding that farmers who fail to get enumerated will not benefit from the scheme. He said the state is unrelenting in its public awareness campaign to ensure that all eligible farmers in the state are enumerated in the exercise that is still on going.
The leader of IFDC, Mr. Willem Vanden Andel said Kwara was selected for the scheme due to its scientific planning in agricultural development, and assured that the agency was ready to continue assisting it in its bid to become the food basket of the nation.
—Reported by Stephen Oni

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