In bid to boost food security in Osun State, Governor Ademola Adeleke’s administration has distributed 31 tractors and over 102,000 seedlings to farmers across the state.
The administration also disbursed N118m cheques to poultry farmers to raise 2,000 birds and nurse them for six weeks before they are sold.
Unveiling his agricultural revolution plans, Adeleke disclosed that he has committed N8bn to the acquisition of tractors and farm clearing equipment and another N2bn worth of farm input support.
He said, “We are distributing 6,000 herbicides, 80,000 cashew seedlings, 8,000 cassava cuttings, 8,000 various vegetable seeds and 500 bags of Lime to our farmers, women associations, people living with disabilities and government schools with large farmlands.
“We are equally unveiling 31 newly purchased tractors with full implements for the use of our farmers in Osun State which is the first phase of this project.
“These tractors will be released to farmers cooperative societies and associations after all necessary administrative procedures have been concluded.
“This is also in line with the promise made to our resourceful youthful population during the last End Bad Governance protest.”
Earlier, the Commissioner for Agriculture and Food Security, Tola Faseru, said that “N118,600,000 will be distributed to poultry farmers participating in the Osun Broiler Outgrower Production Scheme (OBOPS), Each of them is sponsored to raise two thousand (2,000) day-old broiler birds to table size within six weeks and the cycle will be repeated continuously and the off-taker will buy back from each farmer.”