Friday, 29 June 2012 00:00

About 4.3 million farmers have received fertilizers and seeds from the federal government under the Growth Enhancement Support Scheme (GES).

At the flag off of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) GES disbursement, the Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development, Dr. Akinwumi Adesina, said that the aim of the support was to achieve food sufficiency and national security.

Adesina said that GES was designed as a vital component of the Agricultural Transformation Agenda (ATA) and it sought to achieve food security for the farmer and national security at the micro level.

The Minister of Agriculture also revealed that government had planned to distribute about 3.6 million cocoa pods to the 16 cocoa growing states in the country.

She said the scheme had brought a shift from government’s procurement and distribution of fertilizer to private partnership. 

She also said that the country must be transformed from a food importing nation to a food sufficient nation.

She revealed that, the GES redemption exercise would last for only three weeks after which reconciliation would be conducted for 10 days to ensure all the farmers are well attended to.

However, she said private agro dealers would have the opportunity to claim their 50 per cent return immediately after the reconciliation exercise.

According to her, the payments would be made into their various accounts by the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN).

In her remarks, the Minister of State for Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Oloye Olajumoke Akinjide, pledged to ensure that the GES scheme was successful.

She said the FCT administration was ready to provide irrigated lands and basic infrastructures for farmers in the territory.