MAKURDI—As part of efforts to grow annual food production in the country, over N100 million worth of input have been distributed free to selected Benue farmers to boost cassava production in the state. Gov Ortom of Benue State Among items distributed by the International Fund for Agricultural Development, IFAD, Value Chain Develop-ment Programme, VCDP, to the benefiting farming groups were bags of fertilizers, herbicides among others. Flagging off the presentations at Ogbadibo, Okpokwu and Guma Local Government areas, Benue IFAD-VCDP State Project Coordinator, Mr. Emmanuel Igbaukum said each of the benefiting farmers will receive two litres of herbicides from the organisation at no cost.
He said aside the contribution of his organisation to boost cassava cultivation in the state, each of the 2,500 benefiting farmers, through their cluster groups, would also receive same quantity of counterpart support from the state government.
Flagging off the intervention exercise at Taraku, Gwer East Local Government Area, Commissioner for Agriculture, James Anbua, noted that in 2017 the IFAD-VCDP intervention raked in over N2.7 billion into the state’s economy. In his speech, National Programme Coordinator of IFAD-VCDP, Dr. Ameh Onoja, commended the traditional rulers in the five benefiting local government areas of the state for supporting the programme in their domains. Earlier, Benue State Programme Coordinator, Emmanuel Igbaukum, who commended the state government for providing the enabling environment for the programme to thrive, appealed to all the parties in the intervention to shun acts that can derail the programme in the state.
In his speech, Benue State Commissioner for Agriculture, Mr. James Anbua, cautioned the benefiting farmers against diverting the input, warning that the state government would not hesitate to take punitive measures against defaulters.
