NIRSAL Empowers 4, 000 Farmers In Nasarawa State With N500m
By Ajegena Manga
Lafia
The Nigeria Incentive-Based Risk Sharing System for Agricultural Lending (NIRSAL) has empowered over 4,000 farmers in Nasarawa State with N500, million from 2017 to date.
Mr Noel Dilli, Head of Project Monitoring and Remediation Office in Nasarawa State office disclosed this at a stakeholder meeting on Thursday in Lafia.
He said the farmers were given soft loans to assist them in the production of different farm produce to harvest as well as the processing of the produce for value addition.
The Head of monitoring of NIRSAL in the state explained that the monies were given to 3,000 farmers in 2017, 500 in 2018, and 700 in 2020 respectively.
Mr Dilli said however that nothing happened in 2019 as a result of the coronavirus pandemic that had ravaged the entire globe which Nigeria was also affected.
Dilli however regretted that despite the laudable efforts to assist farmers to boost production, more than 80 per cent of the beneficiaries in the state refused to repay their loans.
“Lack of repayment of the loans has currently brought setback in the programme thereby affecting chances of more farmers to benefit from the facility.
“So, we have set machinery in motion to recover the loans that were supposed to be paid back within six months,” he added.
He, therefore, appealed to farmers to always repay whatever loan they collected for the overall development of the country.
On her part, Onerno Obaseki, Assistant Manager, Agricultural Value Chain-Production and Integration Services (AVC-PIS) of NIRSAL PLC commended stakeholders for their participation and useful suggestions in the meeting.
The Assistant Manager of AVC-PIS, however, urged farmers to embrace NIRSAL’s approach to farming as a business to move from peasant to sustainable agribusiness.
She assured farmers that if they embrace the approach of farming, it would help in ensuring food security in the country.
Responding on behalf of beneficiaries, Musa Mohammed representing Rice Millers Association of Nigeria, commended NIRSAL for their intervention in the agricultural sector.
He added that the intervention has led to improved productivity in both farming and processing of harvested produce and appealed for more investment in the sector to enable the country to be self-sufficient.
READ ALSO:https://peoplereporters.com/nasarawa-gov-solicits-additional-cbn-loans-for-farmers/
The meeting had in attendance farmers from the 13 Local Government Areas of the state, processors and the media among others.