BENIN CITY ––In pursuance of his determination to enhance agricultural productivity in Edo State, the State Governor, Prof. Oserheimen Osunbor, yesterday, in Benin City commissioned 10 agricultural tractors procured by the state government for small and medium scale farmers in the state.

Prof. Osunbor explained that the addition of the 10 tractors to the existing fleet of farm machinery in the state tractor hiring unit, was one of the objectives of government towards stimulating organised food production in the agricultural sector of the state economy.

He said it was also to aid producing large pool of high quality and standardized agro-products raw material base to support domestic industrialisation and attract youths to adopt mechanised farming as a way of life, thereby replacing ageing population of farmers in the state.

Beside, affirming that the gesture was aimed at eliminating the problem of drudgery associated with traditional land preparation, he said the state Allottee Farming Scheme was one of the programmes which Edo State government was currently piloting in collaboration with the Central bank of Nigeria (CBN), First bank of Nigeria (FBN) Plc and Nigeria Agricultural Insurance Corporation (NAIC) on an initial total area of 600 hectares contiguous farmlands distributed across the state.

The governor said a six-man project monitoring team comprising representatives of Edo State Government, First Bank of Nigeria (FBN) Plc and Central Bank of Nigeria would be set up to monitor the performance of the scheme and ensure strict adherence to its approval annual work plans.

To guard against problems of post-harvest losses and marketing inherent in the agricultural production, he revealed that adequate funds had been set aside to cater for peasant farmers in the state for their critical farm operations and transportation of their harvested crops to the market.

While disclosing that large quantities of high quality rice would bereleased by government this harvest season from its reserve for distribution to the citizenry at reduced prices as part of measures to cushion the impact of the global food crisis on the people in the state, Prof. Osunbor called on small and medium scale farmers in the state to avail themselves of the opportunity provided by the state government to increase their productivity and generate surpluses.

Earlier, the Commissioner for Agriculture land Natural Resources, Hon. Ken Ihensekhien said the provision of the tractors was to better the lot of farmers, adding that the ten tractors would be deployed to the existing mechanization units across the state by the ministry.

He said the governor had approved the immediate release of N3 million to cater for the financial needs of about 3,000 small scale farmers that applied for such assistance, stressing that the first batch of beneficiaries comprising nine groups selected from across the three senatorial districts of the state would receive their cheques to flag off the special small scale farming as well as post harvest and marketing loans in the state.
High point of the ceremony was the test-driving of one of the tractors by the governor.