By Olusegun Folarin
About 5,000 farmers in Ogun State have been provided with farm equipment, inputs and financial grants to boost their production capacity in line with the renewed hope agenda on food security initiated by President Bola Tinubu.
Sponsor of the farmers’ empowerment programme and Chairman, Senate Committee on Appropriation, Senator Solomon Adeola, said the intervention would help to reduce poverty and tackle hunger among the people.
Senator Adeola said the empowerment, which included training the beneficiaries on modern agricultural practices at the Federal College of Agriculture, Isiagu, Ebonyi State and Federal Cooperative College, Eleyele, Ibadan, was to address poor access to funding, costly farm implements and seedlings, plus the lack of training among farmers.
The Ogun West Senator restated the federal government’s decision of ensuring all year-round farming with a target of three farming seasons annually, noting that over 384 billion naira had been approved for the programme towards achieving national food security and sufficiency.
Senator Adeola commended Governor Dapo Abiodun for complementing the federal government’s efforts through various policies and programmes, such as the allocation of free farmland to farmers in the bid to enhance massive production among farmers in the state.
Earlier, the Ogun State Coordinator, Federal Ministry of Agriculture and Food Security, Dr Oluwatoyin Ajayi, had affirmed that President Bola Tinubu was making conscious efforts to reduce poverty and ensure food availability and security in the country.
Dr Ajayi also acknowledged Senator Adeola’s support for small holder farmers in the senatorial district and across the state towards increasing their productivity and profitability.
The beneficiaries drawn from the six local government areas of the district were presented with tractors, fertilizers, water pumps, insecticides, sprayers, and cassava stems, among other items, with a grant of 100 thousand naira.
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