The National Agricultural Development Fund (NADF) has concluded plans to support 5,000 ginger farmers in kaduna state with free farm inputs as part of efforts to rejuvenate ginger farmers after the devastating 2023 blight epidemic.
Ginger Recovery, Advancement and Transformation for Economy Empowerment (GRATE), a Federal Government initiative, was part of the Ginger Blight Task Force of the Federal Ministry of Agriculture and Food Security under NADF, commenced a stakeholders engagement and screening exercise in seven local government councils across Kaduna state to last for three days.
Addressing the stakeholders’ engagement on inputs disbursement for affected ginger farmers, representative of NADF, Samuel Aende said the GRATE team is engaging and screening ginger farmer from Kachia, Jaba, Kagarko, Zangon Kataf, Kaura, Jema’a and Sanga local government areas.
“The aim of the programme is to rejuvenate ginger farmers, with substantial funding for improved and better ginger yield, after the devastating effect of the 2023 blight epidemic which affects farmers in Kaduna, Plateau, Nasarawa states and the FCT.
“After the Stakeholders engagement and screening of farmers across the 7 councils, each farmer is expected to receive; four bags of 50kg NPK 20.10.10 fertilizer, 2 bags of 50kg Urea fertilizer, one bag of 25kg maize and sorghum hybrid seeds and per hectare dosage of herbicides and crop protection products including fungicide, insecticide for crop rotation,” he said.
Representative of Kaduna Agricultural Development Agency (KADA), David Jonathan, in his remarks, said, “the ginger support program launched by NADF in partnership with our agency, KADA, aims to bolster the ginger value chains and improve the livelihoods of our ginger producers. KADA is proud to be a part of this effort, as it aligns perfectly with our core mission of empowering rural agricultural communities.”
President of National Ginger Farmers Association, Nuhu Dauda thanked President Bola Ahmed Tinubu for his quick intervention to rescue ginger farmers who lost their crops to epidemic in 2023.
He said, “should by mistake this ginger pandemic erupted and Tinubu was not the president, we would have been in a serious trouble.”
Representative of chairman Kachia local government, Victoria Saidu who doubled as the director of forestry said they are working round the clock in partnership with the state government and NADF to ensure a good yield from growth and harvest of ginger.
She urged participants and beneficiaries to “make judicious use of the information and inputs disbursed to them, so that they can make profits.”
One of the beneficiaries, Mrs Gloria Thomas, thanked NADF and Kaduna state government for intervening for the ginger farmers. She lamented that “majority of ginger farmers who borrowed money from commercial banks to cultivate ginger lost a lot of money to the epidemic and are yet to recover. I commend the Federal Government and NADF for this. The intervention is coming at the right time. This is a good start for ginger farmers.”
