Rice farmers commend FG for Anchor Borrowers Programme

Rice farmers in Mani Local Government Area of Katsina State have commended the Federal Government for its agricultural initiatives, especially the Anchor Borrowers Programme (ABP).

Jamilu Ibrahim-Boyi, the Chairman of Rice Farmers Association in Nigeria (RIFAN) in Mani Local Government Area (LGA), conveyed the commendation in an interview with our reporter in Mani on Tuesday.

He said that under the programme, many farmers in the rural areas were able to access farm inputs easily, adding that the feat had led to an increase in rice production in the council area.

He described the ABP as a life-saving programme, considering the millions of farmers who were participating in the programme nationwide.

Ibrahim-Boyi noted that the programme had created some wealthy farmers, adding that rice farmers would continue to support the government’s efforts to make Nigeria to attain food security.

He said that more than 1,000 farmers in Mani LGA had benefited from the supply of agricultural inputs under the programme.

He said that each farmer was provided with bags of fertilisers as well as insecticides, herbicides, sprayers, seedlings and water pumping machines.

Ibrahim-Boyi said that 295 rice farmers were registered under the first phase of the programme in the last dry season farming, stressing that loan repayment had reached 40 per cent.

He added that the association had received 350 bags of paddy rice as loan repayment.

He said that 115 farmers were registered during the last wet season farming and the beneficiaries were given assorted agricultural inputs.

Ibrahim-Boyi said that the association then received 120 bags of paddy from the registered farmers as loan repayment.

He pledged that the association would continue to monitor the implementation of the ABP, saying: “We would not hesitate to confiscate the implements of any erring farmer and sanction him.’’