About 16, 000 farmers in Bauchi State have been selected to participate in the state’s Anchor Borrowers Programme for the 2017 rice production scheme.

The Consultant to the state government on the programme, Dr. Nura AbdulMalik who disclosed this while addressing journalists at the state capital said the 16,000 were selected out of 25,000 who registered for the programme.

According to him, “we have verified 16,000 farmers to take part in the programme and each of them is expected to cultivate one hectare of rice farm”.

Speaking on the selection process, he informed that the state government targeted 30, 000 farmers but only 25, 000 registered. However during the verification, they discovered that some of the farmers could not meet the scheme’s requirements.

“Some of them are not real practicing farmers; some did not own farmlands while the farmland of some of them are not suitable for irrigated agriculture” he explained.

AbdulMalik said the selected farmers were currently undergoing training on the best agronomic practices across all the 20 local government areas in the state.

He however urged farmers to be fully involved in the training adding that the banks would not give loan to farmers who failed to participate in the ongoing training in local government areas of the state.

https://thefarmersdiary./2017/01/23/anchors-borrowers-scheme-16000-farmers-to-participate-in-bauchi/