Guardian

THE Federal Ministry of Agriculture officially flagged off the 2013 Growth Enhancement Support (GES) Scheme on Wednesday at the Fish Farm Estate, Odogunyan, Ikorodu, Lagos with the provision of agricultural inputs to farmers to enhance agricultural productivity in the state.

The farmers benefited from agricultural inputs like cassava cuttings, cotton and maize seeds given free of charge and fertilizers sold at 50 per cent subsidised rate, evenly shared by both Federal and the state government, (Federal Government, 25 per cent and 25 per cent Lagos State Government).

The State Director, Federal Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development, Lagos, Prince Adegbola Olusi, who represented the

Minister of Agriculture, noted that GES is a very good tool to improve agriculture in Nigeria, saying the essence of the scheme is to ensure accessibility of the agricultural inputs by farmers because most of them are difficult to get and at the same time expensive.

He noted that GES, an initiative of the Minister is a device to ameliorate the suffering of farmers with the 50 per cent reduction in price of fertilizer.

Olusi revealed that the 2013 enumeration exercise for farmers is meant for those who had not registered, in order to benefit from the largesse of the government.

In his opening address, the State Commissioner for Agriculture and Cooperatives, Prince Gbolahan Lawal said before now, one of the common problems of agriculture is lack of agricultural inputs, but the administration has embarked on some projects and programmes that will ensure that inputs are made available to farmers at the right time and affordable price.

“To ensure that only genuine farmers got the subsidised inputs, we commenced the first ever farmers database in the history of Nigeria in 2012, over 30,000 farmers were registered in year 2012 across the state with additional 60,000 farmers in year 2013.

“To remind you again, farmers will receive 50 percent subsidy for fertilizers and 100 per cent subsidy for improved seeds through the e-wallet. To ensure that all farmers benefit from the scheme, the farmers’ registration exercise has been improved upon using Optical Mark Reading (OMR) Forms. This is to enable the information to be quickly scanned and processed,” he stated.

He urged the farmers to work very hard and make year 2013 a year of massive success and bountiful food supply for the inhabitants of the state.