Lack of fund stalls FACAN activities in Katsina

Sagiru Yahaya 30, a farmer said, “we were mobilised to register with the association sometime in March 2012, where we paid N500 each as registration fee but since then we have not heard from them again,” he said.He further said farmers of different commodities were assured of benefitting from fertiliser, agro-allied chemicals, seedlings and farm […]

Sagiru Yahaya 30, a farmer said, “we were mobilised to register with the association sometime in March 2012, where we paid N500 each as registration fee but since then we have not heard from them again,” he said.
He further said farmers of different commodities were assured of benefitting from fertiliser, agro-allied chemicals, seedlings and farm implements depending upon the volume in metric tons of the commodities they are farming, but to their surprise, three years after they are yet to hear from the association.
“The reason why we paid the registration fees was the promise made by the officials of the association to provide us with mechanised farm implements, agro-allied chemicals, fertiliser and seedlings depending on the capacity of an individual farmer, and you know naturally farmers do not joke with anything that will boost their production,” Sagiru Yahaya said.
When contacted for comment, Katsina State Coordinator of FACAN, Malam Umar Sani, confirmed the collection of N500 registration fees from farmers and said FACAN was established mainly to galvanise farmers for export of farm produce, production, processing, marketing and enhancement of efficiency and effectiveness in all businesses of all agricultural commodity associations in order to create wealth and employment opportunities.
“Right from 2012 the association has been struggling for financial clout in order to carry out its responsibilities; and it is true that we tried to source our fund through membership registration within the farmers circle in Katsina State unfortunately with the N500 we collected from the farmers we were not able to generate enough to rent office and cover printing of registration forms, receipts, transportation and other expenses.