By Ibrahim Bello
Birnin Kebbi, – All Farmers Association of Nigeria (AFAN), Kebbi chapter, has commended President Muhammadu Buhari for the strategic food security programme that reduced dependency on rice importation into the country.
The state secretary of the association, Alhaji Muhammad Idris told the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) on Tuesday in Birnin Kebbi that about 150,000 farmers in the state contributed to the rice production.
In his speech to mark democracy, the president said through the pursuance of strategic food security programme, rice importation “from other countries has been cut down by 90 per cent, which has a direct impact on foreign reserves.’’
“Our farmers must commend President Buhari for the continued pursuance of his strategic food security programme, which he built around self-sufficiency and reduction of import dependency.
“The programme has brought lots of benefits to our farmers, and the farmers in turn contributed to cut down of rice importation from other countries,’’ he said.
Idris said farmers in the state got over N100 billion loans from the Federal Government in collaboration with the Bank of Agriculture, Central Bank, Sterling Bank and Umza International Farms Ltd.
“About 100,000 farmers got loan from CBN in collaboration with Bank of Agriculture, while 50,000 others benefitted from Sterling Bank loan.
“Each of these farmers got about N210, 000 to boost farming activities.
“Some large scale selected farmers in the state got loan of about N30 million to N50 million each from Umza international farms limited,’’ he said.
The secretary called on the government to assist farmers with tractors, power tillers and other modern farming tools in order to achieve 100 per cent cut down on rice and other crops import.