Ondo rice farmers call on govt to boost production

Rice farmers in Ondo State have called on the state government to boost rice production by providing financial assistance to them.The Chairman of the Rice Farmers Association in the state, Mr Emmanuel Bukola made the call in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Akure at the weekend.Emmanuel said that the farmers were finding it difficult to finance their projects because of the huge financial requirement involved in rice production.The chairman said that a farmer would require millions of naira to produce one hectare of rice.``We need government's financial assistance; it may not necessarily be in the area of granting us loans, it could be provision of high subsidy on farm inputs like chemicals, fertiliser, equipment and others.``Already, we have formed ourselves into about 50 groups, with each having between 10 and 15 members,'' Bukola said.He said that most of the farmers were poor, living in villages and they needed government assistance in many areas.Bukola acknowledged that loans were being provided by the government but the conditions attached to securing the loans were difficult to be met by the farmers.'Majority of the farmers cannot access the loans provided by the state government because we cannot get level 16 officers to stand as our guarantors as one of the conditions attached.'He, therefore, called on the state government to look into the matter and assist the farmers to produce rice in large quatity for internal and external consumptions.
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