The International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD) and Value Chain Development Programme (VCDP) have distributed farm inputs to 150 rice farmers in eight local government areas of Benue.
The State Programme Coordinator, Mr Emmanuel Igbaukum, made this known during the inauguration of input distribution to farmers for the 2022 cropping season in Makurdi on Thursday.
The eight local governments that IFAD-VCDP is intervening in the state are Agatu, Guma, Gwer, Gwer West, Kwande, Logo, Ogbadibo and Okpokwu.
According to Igbaukum, each rice farmers will get four bags of NPK fertiliser, two bags of urea fertiliser and one bag of improved rice seeds as well as herbicides.
He advised the farmers to make judicious use of the inputs to increase food production and enhance their income.
He also said that farmers should plant the seeds immediately, adding that the rice would mature in a very short time.
“The distribution marks the third time that we will be distributing inputs to farmers in 2022.
“We started the distribution in May with the first batch while the second batch was in June and the third batch of the distribution in July,” Igbaukum said.
He said that IFAD-VCDP through its various programmes raised millionaires in the state and were willing to raise more.
He also said that IFAD-VCDP would distribute power tillers, knapsack sprayers, polishers and thrashers to farmers that requested for them and had paid the mandatory 30 per cent counterpart funding.
Dr Fatima Aliyu, the IFAD-VCDP National Programme Coordinator (NPC) also advised the farmers to judiciously use the inputs to scale up agricultural activities for their overall good.
Represented by the Senior Agriculture Officer, Mr Nura Lawal-Daura, Aliyu noted that the inputs were of high quality and were distributed on time too for the benefit of farmers.
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