Eighty-two thousand farmers have so far been registered in Bauchi State
Eighty-two thousand farmers have so far been registered in Bauchi State under the Federal Government’s pegged five million registration of small scale farmers nationwide.
General Manager of the Bauchi State Agricultural Development Programme (BSADP), Dr Aliyu Gital said this while speaking to reportters in Bauchi.
The Federal Government had given directive for the registration of five million farmers by states in the federation through their respective agricultural development programmes in collaboration with ministries of agriculture.
Gital said the need for a comprehensive data base for the farmers aimed at devising methods of fertilizer distribution/sales as government planned to remove subsidy on the commodity.
He said: “This year, the Federal Government wants to gradually withdraw from subsidizing fertilizer especially that the subsidy being given to the farmers does not get to them the way it is intended.”
The manager explained that the data generated from the registration exercise would be used for planning for other inputs that would go to them.
Gital also said: “In the questionnaires, you find that apart from name of the farmers, his residence, even his wife, the telephone number(s), the hectares he has, crops or livestock enterprises, what he produces using those inputs and what the margin is.”
He said, “when the Federal Government directed that the exercise should be carried out, we collected 1,000 forms for Bauchi State. Bauchi is expected to get 140,000 farmers and additional forms may be requested for the state.”
He revealed that the state has applied for increase in the number of farmers in addition to the 140,000.a
