At least 2,074, farmers in Nasarawa State at the weekend benefitted from the Central Bank of Nigeria’s (CBN’s) Anchor Borrowers’ Programme (ABP).

The farmers were supplied knapsack sprayer and water pump machines for rice irrigation farming as part of the apex bank’s sustained efforts to support smallholders farmers nationwide.

Confirming the distribution of the sprayers and water pump machines to the farmers while presenting farming tools in Obi local government of the state, General Manager, Prime Global Synergy, Dozie Chuwuji, said his company partnered the apex bank to distribute the tools to the beneficiary farmers in the state.

According to him, the mechanization support is also aimed at boosting irrigation farming in the state with the attendant implications for improved yields and incomes for the farmers. “

Chuwuji explained: “We want them to farm all season. We are giving them water pumps so that when the rain stops they can use the water pumps to water their crops.

“We want to teach them how to grow on good agricultural practice so that they can feel the benefit of what they are doing”, he added.

The programme thrust of the ABP, which was launched in 2015 by the Federal Government, is provision of farm inputs in kind and cash to smallholder farmers to boost production of their commodities, stabilize inputs supply to agro processors and address the country’s negative balance of payments on food.