Ekiti State Government is set to begin a tractorisation scheme that is expected to boost large scale farming, as part of efforts to fast track development in the agricultural sector and guarantee food security in the state.
Information Commissioner Taiwo Olatunbosun, who made this known in Ado-Ekiti, said the government would partner private investors that would provide tractors, which farm owners could hire to plough and harrow their farms.
He added that under the new arrangement, government would subsidise cost of hiring the tractors by 50 per cent, as against last year’s subsidy of 25 per cent.
Olatunbosun said government would also bear the cost of ploughing and harrowing maximum of five hectares for each benefiting farmer, as against the maximum of two hectares that was done for each benefiting farmer last year.
Highlighting the advantages of the scheme to include increased efficiency and productivity, the commissioner said the emphasis was to make farming attractive and encourage youths to engage in agriculture, adding that the new arrangement would also boost the state’s economic base and curb rural-urban migration.
He recalled some other government’s interventions in the agric sector to include sharing subsidised developed seedlings, distribution of maize free of charge to livestock farmers, building of rural/farm roads in the state and overhauling of the poultry pens at Livestock Development Centre (LDC).
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He noted that government also facilitated 50 per cent subsidy on 10kg rice, maize and cassava seeds for farmers, fumigation of poultry market against Avian Influenza, cassava cutting, maize seed and other farm inputs distributed to 6,202 beneficiaries, while 1,566 farmers were supported with production assets and small scale processing equipment.
He called on youths to take advantage of the opportunities provided by the government to make themselves productive and become self-reliant, saying farmers should also justify government’s huge investment in the sector by judiciously utilising the farm equipment facilitated for them.
The commissioner stressed that optimum achievement can only be attained when stakeholders are committed to the vision of the government and contribute their quota towards achieving the dream.