The National Agricultural Land Development Authority (NALDA) has recovered its 4000 hectares farm estate in Adamawa state, this is event as it also got additional 5000 hectares of land in Fulfulde through donations which would be put in use immediately.
The Authority will also be deploying three rice processing mills in the State to assist farmers in value addition.
Speaking during an interactive session recently with farmers in Adamawa, the Executive Secretary of NALDA, Prince Paul Ikonne, the government would lead the farmers through making money from their produce.
He said the era of middlemen coming to buy off farm produce from farmers at a ridiculous rate is gone. He said farmers would add value to their produce and sell.
“Am here in Adamawa State with a message from the President, the message says go to all the communities, develop their land and make the people rich.
“The only way to achieve that in all the communities is through agriculture, and if it is through agriculture and we are all farmers, that means this message is for us. NALDA is back to make millionaires in all the communities in the country.
“We have to discover that the people that make money from farm produces are not the farmers. So, as NALDA, coming back as a business platform is to help you understand that what you are going is business, and when you understand it’s business, you will be able to know how much you will place on what you are producing”, he said.
For rice farmers in Adamawa, Ikonne said “first of all, capacity building is key for them to understand what they are doing as farmers, secondly, land preparation and thirdly the soil test and finally, value addition.
“The value addition will come in a way of rice processing mill. With the rice processing mill, it will be easy and more profitable for farmers in Adamawa State.
“We are meant to understand that Adamawa produces a lot of paddy that goes out to be processed somewhere else, so NALDA is bringing processing mills that will be in 3 different locations in order to process and give value to their produce.