More than 9, 000 rice farmers have registered for 2019/2020 dry season farming in Bauchi State, under the Fadama III Project to increase production of local rice.

The Communication Officer of the Project, Mohammed Abdul, who disclosed this to newsmen, Friday in Bauchi, said Fadama III had concluded plans to ensure that the selected farmers produce the commodity in commercial quantity against the current subsistence method, where farmers were always left at the mercy of middlemen.

Abdul said the mass rice production programme was being done jointly with the Nigeria Incentive Risk Sharing and Lending (NIRSAL) of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN).

He explained that all participating farmers would be given loans and were expected to pay back immediately after the harvest. Abdul said the programme was aimed at encouraging production, processing and packaging of rice to meet international standard.

According him, a sensitisation and town hall meetings have been organised for farmers in the Northeast to ensure success of the programme.

(The Guardian)