The Federal Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development (FMARD) has delivered 50 tonnes of corn to farmers in Oyo State.
Dr Kakulu Omonele, the state FMARD Coordinator, stated in Ibadan on Wednesday that the distribution was part of the Federal Government’s efforts to assist farmers.
She stated that the offer was made to help mitigate the impact of the 2022 flood, which destabilized farmers across the country.
According to a federal ministry official, certified maize seedlings were distributed to worried farmers at no cost.
“In Oyo state, the quality of certified maize seeds we have distributed to farmers in the last three weeks is over 50 tonnes, and the maize seeds are packed in bags of 20 kilogrammes each.
“The way we do it is that we reach out to commodity associations. We have registered associations for each commodity.
”Like in the case of maize, we reached out to maize associations, cooperatives and corporate farmers.
“We also reached out to individual farmers, because not all farmers are members of the association,” Omonele said.
She added that the ministry also gave out seeds to about 500 rice farmers in the state.
The FMARD coordinator said the number of farmers who benefited from the maize seeds were more than those that profited from rice because more farmers are planting maize.
She said the FMARD in Oyo state was saddled with the responsibility of ensuring that certified seeds got to farmers at the appropriate time to ensure food security in the country.
Omonele further said the ministry also trains and retrains farmers regularly for them to understand the appropriate seeds and times to plant.
“Within few days we have trained a large number of farmers, about 100 of them, on how to adequately plant cassava, yam, cowpea, among others, through a specialised department of the ministry,’’ she said.
