Ekiti trains farmer enumerators
· Urged farmers to key into the agriculture policies.
Farmers in Ekiti State have been urged to fully key into the state and
federal government policies on Agriculture for them to enjoy maximum
benefit and also make the state government realise its plan to make
Ekiti self sufficient in food production.
The Permanent Secretary, Ministry of Agriculture and Rural
Development, Engr. Oludare Abegunde gave the charge while declaring
open the training/seminar organized for enumerators that would carry
out registration of farmers in Ado-Ekiti, the Ekiti State capital.
The Permanent Secretary explained that the training exercise would
enable the enumerators to generate data about farmers in the state.
He said the data would include farm locations, farm size, type of
crop to be planted by farmers, names of their co-operative societies
and several other vital documents that would assist the government in
the sector.
Engr. Abegunde, who explained that the United Bank for Africa (UBA)
was invited for the training to enable participants register for their
Bank Verification Numbers (BVN) urged the farmers to cooperate with
the officials and process their BVN as it would give them oportunity
to enjoy certain privileges from the government.
He also implored the participants not to allow financial benefits
to override the aims and objectives of the programme.
The General Manager of Fountain Agricultural Marketing Agency
(FAMA), Engr. Olugbenga Odesanmi in his own contribution disclosed
that the training was in collaboration with the Nigeria
Incentives-Based Risk Sharing System for Agricultural Lending and the
United Bank for Africa (UBA).
He noted that the trained Seventy Enumerators and Fifty Canvassers
would not just collate data for the government but also assist farmers
to key into the programme and provide other essential services to
them.
A participant from Ado-Ekiti Local Government, Mrs. Rasaq Ayomide,who appreciated the Kayode Fayemi-led administration for organizing
the training exercise encouraged farmers across the sixteen Local
Government areas to avail themselves of the opportunities and fully
key into the programme.
