. Women group raises alarm
Women farmers in Bauchi State have expressed fears that the distribution of expired agricultural inputs by the government may hinder bumper harvest envisaged under the Anchor Borrowers Programme.
This is contained in a communiqué issued at the end of a one-day budget tracking meeting of women farmers organised by Fahimta Women and Youth Development Initiative, Bauchi, in partnership with Action-aid Nigeria.
The women also identified late distribution of inputs such as high yielding seeds, fertilizers and insecticides as other major factors that could frustrate farmers’ efforts to boost both rain fed and dry season farming in Bauchi State.
Some of the women farmers, Rifkatu Magaji from Warji council and Rhoda Haruna from Bogoro council, said that some of the seeds distributed in their communities were not high yielding varieties, alleging that crops that were slated for maturity within three months might take longer time to mature.
The women however re-stated their appeal for the training and retraining of more extension workers while those already in existence within the communities should be given logistic support to educate farmers on modern farming methods.
On agricultural loan scheme, while most women farmers complained of delay in the disbursement, which was always granted farmers in July as against March /April, a lone voice Malama Iyaji Shehu from Kwagal in Kirfi Local Government Area of Bauchi State said that women farmers’ group in Kwagal community had never benefited from such schemes.
Remarking, the Executive Director of Fahimta, Hajia Maryam Garba, urged the Bauchi State Ministry of Agriculture to always consider women farmers’ groups in the rural areas while disbursing agric loans.
She implored the ministry to employ jobless youths in rural areas as extension workers, saying, “this will serve dual purpose of halting unemployment and empowering community members to key into the agricultural scheme of the present Federal Government.”
Also, the acting director of Research and Statistics in the Bauchi Ministry of Agriculture, Mr. Ishaya Ayuba, advised Bauchi-based NGOs to always base their budget analysis on actual amount approved and released and not on proposed budget.
Ishaya assured the women groups that the state government was in contact with the CBN to address challenges militating against the successful implementation of Anchor Burrowers Scheme.