Bauchi State government has approved N35 million as counterpart fund to enable the state participate in Fadama III projects.
State Governor, Mohammed Abubakar, stated this in Gulmai village of Darazo Local Government area on Thursday while launching the 2016/2017 Farina III AF Dry Season Rice Farming.
Represented by Yakubu Kirfi, State Commissioner for Agriculture, the governor said government was determined to ensure that farmers in the state benefited from the programme.
He commended the Federal Government for introducing the programme which he said had assisted a lot of Nigerians in various facets of economy.
Tayo Adewumi, National Project Coordinator, Fadama III Project, while speaking at the occasion, said Bauchi State had drawn N680 million in the last than two years.
Adewumi said the fund was used on the cultivation of 9,000 hectares of land where 10,000 people benefited from production of rice and sorghum, among other benefits.
He said that the project had added about 200,000 metric tonnes of food items into the food basket of the nation.
The coordinator commended the state government for participating in the programme and urged it to put in more efforts to enable farmers in the state benefit.
In his speech,Ali Garba, State Fadama AF Project Manager, said the project had trained 99 participating farmers in modern farming techniques.
Garba said that only one site out of the 50 sites suitable for the production of the crops in the state had been cultivated.
He promised that 15,000 hectares would be cultivated in the next two years in the state to boost food production.
In his remark, Audu Ogbe, Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development, said the scheme was aimed at delivering subsidized agricultural inputs to the farmers in the state.
Ogbe, represented by his Special Adviser, Atteh Auta, said the Federal Government had chosen rice, sorghum, cassava and tomatoes production in the new programme to boost food production in the country.
He therefore urged the state government to justify the confidence reposed in it by excelling in the production of the crops selected for the state.
