BY CHUWANG DUNGS
Taraba State has received 270 tractors out of the 850 tractors ordered by the state government.
Nicholas Namessan, the state Commissioner for Agriculture and Food Security, disclosed this on Friday to journalists while inspecting the assembling of the tractors.
Recall that the The Taraba state Government signed a Memorandum of Understanding with Knight A.S, a Czech company, to supply 850 tractors, and provide technical assistance to boost agriculture in the state.
According to a statement released by Yusuf Sanda, the chief press secretary to Governor Agbu Kefas, all the tractors will be delivered within the first 100 days of the administration.
However only 270 tractors have so far arrived in the state according to Namessan.
He said out of the 100 Cabrio 50 horsepower tractors ordered for, 20 have arrived in the state and 250 units of mini tractors ordered for have also been delivered.
Mr Namessan who did not give a date when the other tractors would be received said the government has developed a template on how the tractors would be shared to farmers across the 16 local government councils at a subsidized rate.
Namessan also disclosed that 60 home based engineers have been trained by the Ghanaian partner engineers to assemble, maintain, operate and to train farmers on how to operate and maintain the tractors.
“We have received, so far, 20 Cabrio and 250 mini high power tractors which will be distributed to our farmers on May 28, 2024.
“Government has already developed a template through the just concluded farmers registration. The preliminary assessment of the registration at various local governments is what we are going to use in distributing the tractors.
“I wish to disclose here that the government has also perfected plans to subsidize the prices of fertilizer and herbicides for farmers to ensure that every farmer goes into production successfully.
“I want to assure all the people of the state that the tractors would be given directly to genuine farmers to achieve the government’s desire of ending hunger in Taraba,” he disclosed.
Some farmers in the state have expressed worry over the delay in the delivery, saying that they don’t have confidence in the farmers registration going on.
A local farmer Ibrahim Sule said, “the tractors ought to have arrived in the state by now as promised by the governor and wondered why the governor failed to deliver on his promise.
“Is already April we are supposed to be in the farm now, but government is yet to give us what the promised us like farm inputs, well we hope the ongoing farmers registration exercise is for good
“I hope we will not experience the same thing that happened during Darius administration
Investigation by DAYLIGHT REPORTERS revealed that between 2018 and 2019, former governor Ishaku bought160 tractors, 60 Massey Ferguson tractors and 100 mini tractors. But the tractors that were supposed to be sold to small-scale farmers at subsidised prices with flexible payment plans were diverted and bought by government officials who in turn hired them out to the farmers at exorbitant rates.
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