To boost agricultural production in the country, the Federal Executive Council (FEC) has approved the disbursement of produce processing machines to farmers in the rural areas .
This was disclosed by the Minister of Agriculture, Audu Ogbeh, while briefing State House correspondents at the end of FEC meeting.
He explained that the project is another indirect measure meant to discourage rural-urban migration.
According to him, the processing machines would boost the cultivation of crops like rice, cassava, millet, maize and other local produce.
The production, he said depends on what each community has the capacity to produce.’
He said the project was being executed in partnership with the Ministry of Finance.
He said “We will identify commodities in various locations, identifying what is suitable in each area, according to their ecological situation, organize the people into cooperatives and allocate the machines to them as loans.’’
Each beneficiary, he said, must be registered with the village chiefs, security agencies and the Divisional Police Officers (DPO) for easy identification and prompt repayment of the loan.
He however lamented that the country was fast losing its productive young people to political thuggery, migration to Europe, Motorcycle operators, while abandoning agriculture.
He said: “Government will be irresponsible if we don’t do anything.
“These people can hardly pay interest rates of between 18 to 25 per cent.
“This is a way to assist them make meaningful earnings through agricultural revolution’’ he stated.