By Stanley Onyekwere
In furtherance to measures targeted at boosting Agricultural Production in Abuja, the nation’s capital city, the Secretary for FCT Agriculture & Rural Development (ARDS), Mallam Abubakar Ibrahim has set up an Inter-Departmental Committee on irrigation, aimed at supporting farming activities during the dry season.
Abubakar explained that the objective of setting up the Committee was to look into ways that FCT Administration can support more farmers engage in all season farming, not only during the dry season.
He added that the Committee will need to conduct a geographic assessment of the FCT, in order to recommend support strategies through improvement of the irrigation systems
The ARDS boss in a statement from the Deputy Director, Information & Communications at the Secretariat, Zakari Aliyu, disclosed that constitution of the Committee was an outcome of the Management meeting where he stressed the need for farmers to be encouraged to engage in farming during the dry season.
He opined that with the rising cost of food items and growing population farming during the dry season will help not only bolster food production but make the prices more affordable for residents.
According to him, the FCT Administration has approved the procurement of some critical farm inputs such as Agro-chemicals as well as water pumping machines which will be sold to FCT farmers at 50% subsidized rates.
He adds: “Our plan is to distribute some of the inputs we have procured during this dry season in February while we prepare for a major support for farmers on time before the commencement of rain in March.”
Furthermore, the Secretary opined that the Committee he noted will be supported by the expertise of Agricultural engineers to ensure that the intervention of the Secretariat will meet required standards for durability and effective utilisation.
He therefore, charged the Committee to explore partnership with investors to support to initiative.
“The Committee, which is chaired by the Secretary, consists of membership from the technical departments of the Secretariat”, the statement added.
