Communities, farmers laud govt’s interventions, support

By Olufemi Oni, Ilorin

Kwara State Governor AbdulRahman AbdulRazaq has embarked on tour of rice plantations in communities in Edu and Patigi local government areas of the state to assess the impacts of seedlings, fertilisers, and other inputs they recently received from the state government.

The Governor, who was represented on the tour by the Commissioner for Agriculture and Rural Development, Toyosi Thomas-Adebayo, said the tour would be
followed by another ‘feedback mission’ to Kaiama and other parts of the state to inspect maize and soya beans farmlands, among others.

Last week, the Governor personally inspected the Kwara Youths Farm in Malete, Moro local government area, where at least 1,500 hectares of land are being cultivated for soyabeans production this farming season.

It would be recalled that the state government had recently launched the distribution of seedlings, fertilisers, and other farm inputs to support 10,000 farmers across the 16 local government areas towards ensuring bumper harvest.

Speaking to reporters on the sideline of the tour in Edu LGA, the Governor said: “Today, we are here for a monitoring exercise to meet (rice) farmers, who benefitted from the government’s interventions, and check their farms to make sure that what they have been given were put to use. That is the main purpose of the exercise.

“One of the things we do as a government to improve food security is to improve productivity. One of the ways we do that is to give timely and quality inputs to our farmers.”

The rice farms visited were in Lafiagi Ward 1 and 2 of Edu; Lade, Sakpefu-lade, Sheshi and Rogun in Kpada Ward 2 of Patigi local government.

At least 20,000 hectares of land are being cultivated for rice production in the areas covered, according to locals.

AbdulRazaq expressed satisfaction with the happenings on the farms and commended the farmers for their commitment to the food security drive of the government.

“I am very happy about what I have seen. Clearly, the farmers have put to use what they got. We have been able to motivate our farmers to do more. We also have a number of farmers waiting to get support from the government and they will get in due course,” he added.

“We have carried out three interventions this year. We started with free input to 3,400 rice farmers and we did another one under the NG-CARES FADAMA for 600,000 farmers which included assets like boats for fishermen and the recently concluded intervention (Agro chemicals, fertilizers and seeds for 10,000 farmers). Even with all these, we still have more farmers seeking the support of the state government. So, we are going to support more farmers.”

Farmers, who spoke with reporters, eulogised the Governor’s support towards boosting farming activities in Edu and Patigi local government areas, and solicited for more.

Alhaji Muhammad, Secretary of Sakpefu community, praised the government for its unwavering support to rice farmers in the State, and appealed for an extension of their farmlands to increase their yields