Jigawa State governor, Malam Umar Namadi has declared that his government supported farmers to cultivate over 200,000 hectares of rice during the dry season and expecting to harvest over 800,000 metric tons.
The governor stated this while inspecting some rice farms along Hedjia Valley in Ringim, Taura, Auyo and Hadejia local government areas of the state.
He said, Agriculture is one of the key sectors of his 12-point agenda and would be used for poverty eradication, job creation, food security and building resilient and sustainable economic development.
Governor Namadi explained that the farmers were supported with various farm inputs at subsidized rates, as well as soft loans which enabled them to cultivate the large farm lands.
According to him, they are targeted to produce 800,000 metric tons for the dry season farming and also hoped to produce similar quantity during the rainy season farming which means that Jigawa State could produce 1,600,000 metric tons of rice, equivalent to 27 percent of the annual rice needed in Nigeria.
Governor Namadi told the farmers that his government is aware of the high cost of commodities, including fuel, which negatively affects the cost of production, promising to collaborate with the federal government to get subsidized fuel for them.
He also assured to source solar-powered water pump generators and sell to them at subsidized rates to reduce their cost of production and increase their profit.
The governor commended the farmers for demonstrating commitments to their business which he described as very encouraging.
Speaking on behalf of the farmers, one of the farmers, Alhaji Dauda Ali told the governor that their major problem during the dry season farming was high cost of fuel as he alone spent over N1 million on fuel per week and called on the governor to provide them with an alternative source of power to enable them remain in their service of providing food for the nation.