It is in this regard that the National Agricultural Development Fund flagged off an exercise designed to provide critical assistance to affected farmers with a view to supporting smallholder farmers in Kaduna State.
The Honourable Minister of Agriculture and Food Security, Senator Abubakar Kyari, while speaking at the flag-off exercise, mentioned that it had identified 5,000 smallholder farmers across 7 Local Government Councils of the state.
The exercise was flagged off in Kachia on June 12, 2024, by the Executive Secretary/CEO of NADF, Muhammadu Abu Ibrahim, to mark the beginning of all-out effort for support by smallholder farmers in the region.
Today, affected ginger farmers in Jema’a, Sanga, and Jaba LGAs received GRATE package inputs supplied by the Federal Government, in what has been termed measure toward ensuring the success of the programme.
He said the government had not changed its high commitment to that cause: “Our commitment is still very high, and this is not an activity in any way associated with an individual but in furtherance to a collective effect in seeing that such comes to fruition for our farmers.”
He revealed that he receives daily updates on the progress made so far in the initiative—an indication of the importance this government places on the resolution of challenges confronting smallholder farmers in Kaduna State.
This should be a much-needed relief for the smallholder farmers in the area, who have been battling many challenges in the last few days.
The intervention by NADF and the Federal Government is sure to make a huge difference by improving not only the productivity and livelihood of these farmers but contributing immensely towards helping grow and develop the agricultural value chain in Nigeria.