FROM RAHILA ABDULLAHI, KADUNA
Kaduna State government has commenced the distribution of free agricultural implements and inputs to cooperatives in order to enhance year-round farming.
Comprising 10 members, each cooperative was given 18 horse-power tiller, 18 horse-power three inch solar-powered irrigation pumping machine and a 13 horse-power two inch solar-powered water irrigation machine, and a gasoline-powered water irrigation pump.
Each cooperative was also given 30 bags of urea and NPK fertilisers, which translate to three bags per member, one motorised knapsack sprayer one carton of herbicide and another carton of pesticide.
It would be recalled that Governor Uba Sani had launched a dry season agricultural empowerment programme at Murtala Square on February 16.
The distribution of the farming implements commenced last Saturday, as the Commissioner of Agriculture, Alhaji Murtala Dabo, gave out the items to benefitting cooperatives at the ministry’s central warehouse at Dankade village.
Speaking at the event, the commissioner said is the first time that government is distributing free farm implements, describing the support as unprecedented.
Dabo disclosed that government’s gesture is to ameliorate the pains that farmers go through to irrigate their farmlands, especially due to the rise in petrol price.
‘’Fuelling their pumping machines on a weekly basis eats into the profit margins that they would have naturally made.
“This massive support that is coming from the governor is going to help in bringing down the cost of production, which should ultimately bring down prices,’’ he said.
The commissioner disclosed that the Sani administration had also procured a combined harvester that would help farmers in reducing their cost of production.
