Edo registers 120,000 farmers on GES scheme

Edo State Ministry of Agriculture and Natural Resource said a total of 120,000 farmers have been registered in the Federal Government Growth Enhancement Support Scheme in the state.

The State Commissioner for Agriculture and Natural Resources, Abdul Oroh gave the hint in Benin City at a one day sensitization workshop organized by the department of rural development of the federal ministry of agriculture and rural development.

Oroh who noted that agriculture remain the most veritable and viable means of transforming the nation’s economy said the training was necessary in planning government’s agricultural policies and programmes.

He added that the workshop will enable the state government identify the priority areas that needs government interventions in the rural areas.

He however added that the Federal Government Growth Enhancement Support Scheme was not for the imposition of taxes on farmers but to enable state governments formulate policies and proper planning which the Edo state government has already keyed into.

Earlier,  the acting director, federal department of rural development,  Musibau Azeez,  said  more than 50 enumerators from the Federal Ministry of Agriculture and Rural development have in the past ten months trained on rural infrastructure survey and welfare statistics.

Azeez posited that the training was expected to assist the enumerators in producing an empirical database for planning and implementing agricultural and rural development programmes in the country.

He added that the effort was geared towards promoting increased capacity for improving the implementation of the agricultural transformation Agenda (ATA) of the federal government.

He disclosed that the transformation agenda has recorded notable achievements in the last two years.

According to him, I would like to frantically remind us that as we savior our successes under the ATA and work towards the achievement of the present and future targets. There is a critical and desirous need to have a baseline for measuring the growth and improvement in the living standards of the rural people which will serve as a relevant basis for evaluating the performance of the ATA.

“So far in the past 10 months a total of 50 enumerators have been trained by the Federal Ministry of Agriculture and Rural development on rural infrastructure survey and welfare statistics.

By: IDRIS UMAR MOMOH