Ayoni M. Agbabiaka
The federal government Growth Enhancement Support Touch and Pay (GES TAP) has registered 110, 642 genuine farmers in the Federal Capital Territory (FCT).
Minister of State for Federal Capital Territory Oloye Olajumoke Akinjide, said this yesterday at the flag-off ceremony of the 2014 Growth Enhancement Support (GWS) scheme.
She said all communities in the 62 wards of the FCT were captured in the programme.
She, however, said the registration was not without its challenges, but the administration ensured that only genuine farmers were registered under the new technology which has proved dependable in rural communities.
She said registered farmers on the platform were ready to redeem their farm inputs of two bags of fertiliser at 50 per cent subsidy and 10kg of maize of rice at 90 per cent with ease this season.
Mrs Akinjide said there were abundant opportunities for investment in the areas of agricultural land clearing and tractor hiring services, cold stores and cooling warehouse fortress and perishable food items value addition on crop, fishery, meat and dairy processing.
Earlier, Secretary of the Agricultural and Rural Development Secretariat, Olvadi Bema Madayi, said the e-wallet system using GSM technology captured 92, 143 farmers about 82 percent out of the 111, 276 of the GES National Data base.
Madayi said the FCTA was determined to record remarkable achievement in agriculture sector in accordance with the transformation agenda of the present administration.
She said FCT Administration had signed onto the Nigeria Incentive Based Risk sharing in Agricultural Lending System (NIRSAL) programme being promoted by the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN).
Director, Federal Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development, Dr. Charles Momo, said 40, 000 farmers had redeemed their input in the third week of redemption input, adding that the 90 per cent subsidy of the inputs has reduced the cost of the maize and rice inputs from N1, 800 and N2, 700 to N200 and N310, respectively.