Following the Federal Government’s Agriculture Bank Loan known as “Anchor Borrowers’ Scheme” project, at least 100,000 farmers in Plateau State have registered into the scheme to assess bank loans for the 2016 fiscal year.

Commissioner for Agriculture in the state, Mrs Linda Barau, disclosed this to farmers, during a harmonization meeting with stakeholders at the conference hall, state secretariat Jos, over the weekend.

According to her, government wants to drive the economy through agriculture to give it a great emphasis of encouraging farmers to register with the ongoing anchor borrowers’ scheme – for the main purpose of achieving food sufficiency in the state.

The commissioner stressed that government will soon introduce a price control mechanism in all the 17 local governments of the state to limit activities of middle-men, who are posing a great danger to the local farmers.

She commended the federal government for giving priority to agriculture, which will help in repositioning the dwindling economic recession facing the country.

While expressing sadness over the lack of adequate information, which has crippled the ongoing government registration of farmers, Mrs Barau said that government is planning to hold town hall meetings in all 17 LGAs of the state to educate farmers on how to prepare for challenges of borrowing.

Mrs Barau admonished chairmen of the various agricultural products to educate other farmers on the importance of agriculture, and condemned a situation whereby farmers sell their farm produce before the harvesting period expires.

Speaking also, the chairman Promotion Commodities Interest in the state, Mr Joshua Bitrus, appealed to government to invest in buying all farm crops so as to prevent middle-men from creating unnecessary hardship by buying post-harvest – as this would go a long way in preventing loses to farmers.

He solicited for government’s drive in moving towards advanced ways of agriculture, saying, “We must harmonize to stop the activities of middle-men,” and urged farmers to embark on wider consultation on information sharing.

Mr Bitrus stressed further that it is quite disheartening with the rate at which farmers are selling their farm products, saying that, “We need to talk to our farmers because the rate of post-harvest loses is looming ahead if nothing is done to stop the ugly trend.

“Our farmers are disposing their grains before the harvesting period due to lack of proper planning. Farmers will start selling their crops by pricing the whole farm and then sell it out,” he said.

He appealed to the federal and state governments to as a matter of urgency introduce price control marketing, which is very important so that no farmers would sell their crops now.

Mr Bitrus explained further that PADDY started buying rice at a very low price of 9,000 per bag and then suddenly jacked-up the price beyond the reach of common farmers.

Special Adviser on Agriculture, Mr Luka Madaki, along with Hunkoom Alfred, had expressed concern over government’s inability to set up machinery on ground to check the influx of middle-men; and called on the state government to remember its promises to change lives of local farmers through mechanized system of farming in an ‘enabling environment’ so as to tackle post-harvest loses.

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PLSG registers 100,000 farmers for anchor borrowers scheme