Value Chain Group partners CBN, Unity Bank to empower 10,000 farmers

Wed, Dec 11, 2019
By publisher
2 MIN READ

Business

THE Cowpea and Beans Value Chain Association in partnership with Central Bank of Nigeria, CBN, and Unity Bank Plc have set machinery in motion to empower 10,000 farmers.

The 10,000 beneficiaries will receive funding to produce cowpea and beans free of residual chemicals that are harmful for consumption.

This move is one of the different strategies to change the narrative of the 2015 rejection of Nigeria’s cowpea and beans for exportation by the European Union, on the grounds that the crops were harmful for consumption.

Fatima Shittu, a board of trustee member of the association, while speaking at the Town Hall meeting for Cowpea program dry season 2019-2020 said the convergence was to establish an agreement between the farmers and sponsors on the economics of the production.

Mohammed Tukur, a representative of Unity Bank was present to monitor and note the economic agreement of the items and equipment for the farming.

Shittu told newsmen that the 10,000 farmers would engage in organic method of farming to eliminate pests as dry season approaches.

The BoT member said the farmers are expected to begin planting by January 2020 and harvest by April as the crops thrive during dry season.

She explained that the association in collaboration with the CBN and Unity Bank Plc would support the farmers, not in monetary terms but inputs for the production.

The National Publicity Secretary of the association, Tajudeen Kareem disclosed that the interaction between the farmers and sponsors was the final stage of negotiation before the farmers commence work on the field.

He further said that the pilot states where the 10,000 farmers were drawn include, Adamawa, Borno, Yobe and Taraba states.

Nigeria is the largest producer and consumer of cowpea and beans in the world. Crops responsible for 25 percent of protein in the body.

– Dec. 11, 2019 @ 18:35 GMT |

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