GES 2014 performance is poor - Farmers
Agric Farmer
Smallholder farmers in Kwara State have rated the performance of Federal Government’s Growth Enhancement Support Scheme (GES) for farmers in 2014 as poor.
The assessment report was contained in a score-card presented in Ilorin recently at the “Dissemination of Community Participatory Assessment on Government Expenditure on Agriculture and Score-Card on Growth Enhancement Support Scheme (GES) 2014”.
The programme was convened by the Centre for Community Empowerment and Poverty Eradication, a partner of the Actionaid Nigeria.
The report noted that the GES programme did not improve in 2014 in Kwara as it did in 2013, unlike in Bauchi and the Federal Capital Territory, where there were significant improvements in the year under review.
“However, some states like Kwara, Delta and Ondo made significant improvement on the number of farmers that benefitted from the programme in 2014,” the score-card said.
According to the report, in spite of these individual states improvement, the programme was plagued with several challenges, most of which were identified in the 2013 assessment.
The report, which was presented by Mr Abdulrahaman Ayuba, the Programme Officer for the NGO, said that the real smallholder farmers were left out of the scheme as many of them complained of registering, but not redeeming their inputs.
The report advocated for a review and continuation of the GES programme to serve as a proactive measure.
The score-card bemoaned what it described as non-existence of extension services to the smallholder farmers in the rural communities.
But in his response, Mr Olohuntoba Joseph, a former director, extension service in the Kwara Agriculture Development Project (KWADP), debunked the claim that farmers did not interact with extension agents, admitting, however, that the number of the agents was inadequate.
Mr. Raphael Adeponle, the acting state director, federal ministry of agriculture and rural development advised farmers to see agriculture as a business.
The assessment report was contained in a score-card presented in Ilorin recently at the “Dissemination of Community Participatory Assessment on Government Expenditure on Agriculture and Score-Card on Growth Enhancement Support Scheme (GES) 2014”.
The programme was convened by the Centre for Community Empowerment and Poverty Eradication, a partner of the Actionaid Nigeria.
The report noted that the GES programme did not improve in 2014 in Kwara as it did in 2013, unlike in Bauchi and the Federal Capital Territory, where there were significant improvements in the year under review.
“However, some states like Kwara, Delta and Ondo made significant improvement on the number of farmers that benefitted from the programme in 2014,” the score-card said.
According to the report, in spite of these individual states improvement, the programme was plagued with several challenges, most of which were identified in the 2013 assessment.
The report, which was presented by Mr Abdulrahaman Ayuba, the Programme Officer for the NGO, said that the real smallholder farmers were left out of the scheme as many of them complained of registering, but not redeeming their inputs.
The report advocated for a review and continuation of the GES programme to serve as a proactive measure.
The score-card bemoaned what it described as non-existence of extension services to the smallholder farmers in the rural communities.
But in his response, Mr Olohuntoba Joseph, a former director, extension service in the Kwara Agriculture Development Project (KWADP), debunked the claim that farmers did not interact with extension agents, admitting, however, that the number of the agents was inadequate.
Mr. Raphael Adeponle, the acting state director, federal ministry of agriculture and rural development advised farmers to see agriculture as a business.
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