The Agricultural Transformation Agenda Support Program Phase-One (ATASP-1) has presented agricultural enhancement equipment to farmers’ cooperative groups in Anambra State.
The farmers who are from Ayamelum, Orumba North and Aguata Local Government Areas, took delivery of mobile thresher, rubber-mill, rice destone, dryer machines, hand-held planter, hammer mill, cassava grater and knap sack sprayer.
Mr Romanus Egba, ATASP-1 Adani-Omor Zonal Program Coordinator, presented the equipment to the farmers at the official flag-off of the 2023 farming season in Awka, on Saturday.
Egba said that 13 farmers’ groups were selected across the state based on needs assessment.
He said that the distribution of the agricultural enhancement machines was to support farmers in boosting their livelihood and income which was one of the major objectives of ATASP-1.
According to him, the use of the machines will create employment and income generation along the value chain of rice, cassava and sorghum.
“We provided the farmers with smaller rice processing machine and also hammer mill to process cassava into flour. We believe that this machines will boost their post-harvest processing capacities.
“We provided sprayers and hand-held planters so that farmers will no longer go through the pains of bending down to plant their seeds.
“The planters can be used to plant maize, rice and sorghum.
“We also provided mobile cassava grating machine for farmers that are doing well in cassava production but they do not have grating machine to process them.
“The good thing about this machine is that it can be taken to wherever it is needed to assist the farmer in grating cassava,” he said.
Also speaking, Dr Onyekachi Ibezim, the Anambra State Deputy Governor, advised the beneficiaries to make good use of the equipment to become employers of labour and major contributor to food supplier in the country.
In his remarks, Dr Forster Ihejiofor, state’s Commissioner for Agriculture, urged the farmers not to misuse the machine as they were procured with loans from the African Development Bank.
“These equipment are not free, they were funded with public money. I urge you to use them to produce and process foods so that we can have abundant and cheaper foods in the state and the country,” Ihejiofor said.
