FG DISTRIBUTES INPUTS TO EBONYI FARMERS FOR WET SEASONING FARMING

Reporter: AMECHI ODO

The Federal Government has distributed free inputs to one hundred and fifty farmers as part of its efforts to boost rice production and cushion the effect of COVID-19 pandemic on rice farmers in Ebonyi State.

In a message to the event in Abakaliki, the Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development, Alhaji Muhammad Nanono explained that the distribution was part of Federal Government’s wet season rice seeds intervention programme.

The inputs are seven hundred and fifty litres of herbicide, six hundred litres of pesticide, one hundred and fifty bags of treated Faro 44 rice seeds and six hundred bags of NPK.

Others are three hundred bags of Uria fertilizer and one hundred and fifty litres of soil mender as well as cultivation guide posters.

Represented by an Agric Officer in the Federal Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development, Chief Augustine Okezie, the Minister, pointed out that Ebonyi was the only state in the South East zone selected for the Federal Government’s wet season rice seed intervention programme to achieve food sufficiency.

The Director Federal Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development in Ebonyi State, Mr. William Obasi, said the benefitting farmers had been verified to ensure that each of them had at least one hectre of rice farm.

Two of the beneficiaries, Mr. Francis Agara and Miss Lilian Ebele, commended the Federal Ministry of Agriculture for selecting genuine farmers for the wet season programme, noting that the inputs would reduce their financial burden.

Radio Nigeria gathered that the benefiting farmers were drawn from the thirteen local government areas of the state.