Over 3000 farmers were empowered in Katsina State Government under the Nigeria COVID-19 Action Recovery and Economy Stimulus, NG-CARES programme.
This was disclosed by the Coordinator of the FADAMA CARES Component of the programme in Katsina State, Mas’ud Banye on Friday in Katsina after inspecting some farms under the programme to assess the level of implementation.
Banye said the support provided by the World Bank as loan through the Federal Government, and distributed free to the farmers by the Katsina Government, was targeting 22,000 farmers in the state.
The programme provides assistance to poor and vulnerable persons to enable them to recover from the losses incurred from the COVID-19 pandemic, explaining that the programme had provided assistance to 1,650 maize and sorghum farmers and gave various farming inputs to 1,350 poor and vulnerable farmers in the state.
Each maize farmer was given 10 kilogrammes of maize seedlings, three bags of NPK and one bag of Urea Fertilizers as well as herbicides and pesticides.
Similarly, each sorghum farmer was given 10 kilogrammes bag of seeds, two bags of NPK, a bag of urea and a gallon of liquid fertilizers.
The farmers were also exposed to intensive capacity building while extension agents were dispatched to their various farms to guide them.
The farming implements given to the 1,350 farmers include thrashers, knapsack sprayers, food packaging machines and Personal Protective Equipment (PPEs) to prevent them from coming into contact with harmful chemicals.
