From Olanrewaju Lawal, Birnin Kebbi
About 150,000 farmers and civil servants across the 21 local government areas of Kebbi State are expected to benefit from loan facilities under the Anchor Borrowers Programme (ABP) for dry and wet seasons.
Chairman of the Kebbi State Wheat Farmers Association, who also is a member of the state Anchor Borrowers Programme Committee, Alhaji Abdullahi Saidu Argungu, who confirmed this yesterday stated that the loan was also meant for all crops and other agricultural intervention programmes in animal husbandry and fishery during the 2021 dry season farming.
Argungu, who disclosed this in Birnin Kebbi, during a stakeholders meeting on the programme explained that the meeting was geared towards standardising agricultural activities in the state, focused on collation of realistic and genuine database of farming and agricultural activities ranging from crop farming, livestock to fisheries.
He said: “The census is to collate the names of only credible and genuine farmers, who have farms and are also willing to engage in farming activities not restricted to rice farming alone.
“This is a deviation from the norm; in the past were some beneficiaries of such facilities were not genuine farmers. The governor is willing to assist and he also wants a situation where all those farmers who are genuinely engaged in various farming activities get all the facilities they require.”
