By Matthew Denis
The Kwara State government has warned beneficiaries of the Anchor Borrowers’ Scheme against sharp practices programme or risk being prosecuted.
The Special Adviser to Governor Abdulfatah Ahmed on Agriculture and Water Resources, Hon. Anu Ayodeji Ibiwoye, issued the warning while giving this medium an update on the programme, on Thursday.
He disclosed that a few farmers have been discovered to be engaging in sharp practices such as reselling inputs.
“Despite efforts by state government to ensure that the system runs smoothly, we have noticed that some people who come under guise of being farmers collect inputs and resell it. We have apprehended few of these culprits and handed them over to the law enforcement agency for legal action to be taken against them to serve as deterrent to others.
“The state government is expected to pay back the loan to the Central Bank of Nigeria therefore it is incumbent on the farmers to remit money after they must have sold their products.
“If the state government will shoulder the responsibility of repaying the loan in which farmers have default, it implies that the present administration will not be able to deliver on projects and we’ll not see the impact of the farmers in agricultural development.
“We have completely moved away from political farmers to dealing with real farmers and have gone through the rigours of processing the registration/ biometric capturing and if we are noticing this at the point of collection it implies that there’s a lot of insincerity in the system.
“The effect of what they have done is that we have not achieved the objective of generating food security and they (farmers) are not able to reap the multiplier effects of their crops, thereby creating a leakage in the system.
Recall that a total number of 1,250 farmers in the state were shortlisted to benefit from the first phase of the N1billion 2018 Anchor Borrowers’ Programme (ABP) facilitated by the CBN and the Kwara State Government.
He said, “We flagged off the scheme on the 23rd of July this year and invited about N1,250 farmers for the phase 1 of the programme. This included 500 maize farmers, 350 Soya beans farmers, 150 rice farmers and 250 cassava farmers across board.
” But we recorded a total of 1,496 farmers who participated in the capacity building training, that is 558 participants for maize, 378 soya bean farmers, 253 rice farmers which implies that more people came without invitation and we have started disbursement of input for farmers,” the governor’s aide explained .
Ibiwoye stressed that the Kwara State Governor, Abdulfatah Ahmed has approved 500 farmers for the phase 2 of the programme in line with the demands by the people.
The SA who could not ascertain the number of the beneficiaries who have collected inputs as the distribution is ongoing, said quite a significant number of farmers have benefited.
According to him, they have received a number of applications from members of Kwara State House of Assembly agitating for people in their constituencies to be considered.
