Taraba farmers yet to get tractors

Farmers in Taraba State are yet to get their share of tractors given to farmers across the states on hiring basis by the federal government. The programme, it would be recalled, was recently launched by Vice President Namadi Sambo. This was disclosed by the State Director of Federal Ministry of Agriculture, Dr Samuel Adaji, in Jalingo, […]

Farmers in Taraba State are yet to get their share of tractors given to farmers across the states on hiring basis by the federal government.
The programme, it would be recalled, was recently launched by Vice President Namadi Sambo.
 This was disclosed by the State Director of Federal Ministry of Agriculture, Dr Samuel Adaji, in Jalingo, the state capital.
He explained that after the commencement of the exercise in Abuja, some processes would, normally, be observed before the states can start getting their shares.
Also speaking, Taraba State Chairman of All Farmers Association of Nigeria (AFAN), Comrade Hassan Abubakar, said farmers in the state were yet to get the tractors.
Similarly, rice farmers in Taraba State said they have not received agriculture loans from the federal government to boost rice farming for the past four years.
Taraba State Chairman, Rice Farmers Association of Nigeria (RICEFAN), Alhaji Yahaya Isa, in an interview said rice farmers were facing a lot of challenges and required support from government.
He said the assistance to rice farmers in the state from the federal government came through the Growth Enhancement Scheme (GES) in the areas of fertilisers and seed varieties.
According to him, the last loan which rice farmers got was about four years ago and it was not from the government but through an arrangement between the First Bank and farmers association in the state.
Alhaji Yahaya said what farmers needed was not just loan facility but grants from the federal government to enable them boost their farming activities, adding that some farmers might hardly pay back loans.
He said Taraba State has great potential in terms of rice production but rice farmers lacked assistance in the areas of modern farm equipment, herbicides and milling machines to maximise the potential.
According to him, many of the rice farmers depended on manual labour for cultivation and rice harvesting which, he said, affected the quality of their outputs.
Other challenges facing rice farmers, he mentioned, were in the areas of rice processing and marketing, saying there were not enough modern rice processing factories in the state, even as there was no rice commodity marketing board to assist farmers sale their produce.
He said the Al-umma Lau Rice Processing Factory, a private-owned rice milling outfit based in Jalingo, was the only functional modern rice mill in the state while others were clusters of local rice milling machines available in some rice producing areas of the state.
According to him, the Al-umma Lau Rice Processing Factory has the capacity of producing 30 metric tonnes of rice per day but it has only been able to produce between 5 to 10 metric tonnes daily due to lack of adequate capital.
He said the factory processes and packages rice of good quality, adding that customers come from Lagos and other parts of the country to buy the products.