14bn dry season farming #nigeria

Makurdi, Abuja, Gusau, Ilorin, Awka, Birnin Kebbi, Owerri, Kano, Gombe, — President Goodluck Jonathan, on January 20, 2014, announced the sum of N14 billion for the 2014 dry season farming support programme. The government spent N9 billion for the same purpose in 2013. The fund is meant to help farmers produce rice and maize during the dry season. This initiative came after the devastated experience of 2012 flood, which left many farmlands destroyed. According to the government, producing food in dry season will help curb the effect of flood, which threatens food security. Our reporters checked with the dry season farmers across the country how they have benefitted, or otherwise, from the N14 billion but many said they have not felt the impact of the programme. From Kano, Chairman of the state AFAN, Alhaji Muhammed Tukur Bello, said that the federal government needs to review its approach in the distribution channels adapted for the programme. However, chairman of Kano Apex Padama Users Association, Umar Tsara, revealed that out of 64 thousand registered members of the association, over 43 thousands have benefited from the federal government's assistance. He added that under the programme, each irrigation farmer was given three bags of fertiliser at 50% subsidised price and one 25kg bag of improved seed. Hajiya Fatima Sharif is the chairperson of the women wing of All Farmers Association of Nigeria (AFAN), known for her efforts in irrigation farming. Fatima produces over 1,300 bags of rice annually. According to her, most women farmers in the state have not benefited from the federal government agricultural intervention. "The men may have benefited from the intervention, but for us the female irrigation farmers, who constitute about 30% of the total number of irrigation farmers in Kano State, have not been," Fatima lamented. In Zamfara, the Secretary of Bakalori Water Users Association Mallam Yusha'u Mafara said irrigation farmers in Zamfara State could have faced challenges in this year's dry season farming had the federal government not intervened through the timely provision of seed and fertiliser.