At least 78,000 rice farmers in Kebbi State have benefitted from the CBN’s Anchor Borrowers Programme (ABP), an official of Rice Farmers Association of Nigeria (RIFAN) in the state has said.
Chairman of RIFAN in the state, Alhaji Mohamed Sahabi, told newsmen in Birnin-Kebbi on Sunday that rice farmers were given loans and other inputs such as fertiliser, pesticides, seeds, and water pumps for irrigation.
Sahabi lauded the programme, saying it had helped farmers earn profit and increase rice production in the state.
He explained that 5,000 farmers attached to Labana Rice Mills, an indigenous rice milling company in the state benefitted from the programme.
The chairman said that another batch of 26,000 rice farmers in the state had also been short-listed to be given loans to assist them in rice production.
Sahabi said that some rice farmers in the state have also commenced repayment of the ABP loans they collected.
“The current support for farmers in the country is the Anchor Borrowers Programme which came into function in 2015.
“This programme has helped rice farmers in Kebbi to earn a better living.’’
The chairman said rice farmers were faced with the challenge of accessing their farm lands especially during the rainy season.
Sahabi appealed to the state government to construct feeder roads that would guarantee access to farms and effective transportation of goods to the markets.
“We want access roads to our farms so that we will be able to transport our produce to the markets.
“The African Development Bank is doing something about it but we want the government to also come in.’’
The ABP was launched in 2015 to create economic linkages between over 600,000 smallholder farmers and reputable large-scale processors with a view to increasing agricultural output and significantly improving capacity utilisation of integrated mills.
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