Gov. Abdulfatah Ahmed of Kwara on Thursday blamed the delay in the commencement of the government’s new commercial agriculture scheme on the non-release of funds by a commercial bank to outgrower farmers.
The governor made the clarification via a statement issued in Ilorin by his Senior Special Assistant on Media, Alhaji Muideen Akorede.
The statement said that Ahmed stressed that the government had put in place some structures for the commencement of the 10 outgrower farmers per local government area scheme.
It said that the governor said that the scheme’s commencement was, however, hampered by the inability of a commercial bank to release funds approved under the Commercial Agriculture Credit Scheme (CACS).
It said that based on its agreement with the bank, the state government had assured the 173 farmers under the scheme of its preparedness to ensure that suppliers of farm inputs were paid directly through the bank.
The statement regretted that the delay in the release of the funds had slowed down the government’s plans to extend commercial farming to every part of the state.
It, however, urged the affected farmers to exercise patience while the challenges facing the scheme were being addressed.
