The Ekiti State government has extended by two weeks the date of expiration of its Growth Enforcement Scheme (GES) proragmme under which farmers are given fertilizers and other agricultural inputs at subsidized rates.
The State Commissioner for Agriculture and Natural Resources, Mr. Babajide Arowosafe disclosed this at a meeting with cocoa farmers in the fourteen (14) cocoa producing Local Government Areas of the State.
Mr. Arowosafe who noted that the Scheme has been very successful in the state explained that under the GES,E-Wallet and GSM would be equally used to alert farmers and pass relevant information to them as well as curb fraud in the system.
The Commissioner urged farmers in the state to embrace the subsidy given because the state government has a lot of projects to finance in this fiscal year.
According to the Commissioner, Five (5) bags of specialized fertilizers as well as fungicides and insecticides that would ensure the cocoa trees are produce maximum yields would be given to each
farmer at the existing redemption centres.
Mr. Arowosafe appealed to farmers not to plant old grains and seeds to enable them have bountiful harvest and good market. He allayed the fear of farmers on the application of the inputs saying ADP would do a lot of extension work on the use of the inputs The Commissioner advised the farmers not to use the inputs for more than two hectares of land to allow it have the desired multiplier effect.
He disclosed further that efforts were in top gear to distribute high yield cocoa pods produced by Cocoa Research Institute of Nigeria, Ibadan to farmers in the State before the end of the year.
Responding on behalf of other farmers, Mr. Adebola Alagbada from
Ise-Ekiti thanked the Government for its support but called for greater support in the area of subsidizing the cost of agricultural inputs.
Also speaking, Chief Alfred from Igbara Odo complained about the activities of the officials at the various redemption centres.
Alfred urged the Commissioner to monitor the redemption centres to facilitate effective distribution of the inputs.
Last modified: July 5, 2012