Kwara State governor, Abdulfatah Ahmed has disclosed that his administration has disbursed about N1billion to five hundred small holder farmers and forty commercial farmers in the state.
The governor made the disclosure while declaring open the 2nd Harmony Agriculture International Fair (HAGIF) at Banquet Hall, Ilorin.
He said the small holder farmers were also provided access to 2,550 hectares of land across the state.
The Governor said the Off-Takers Demand Driving Agriculture (ODDA) Scheme is an empowerment programme formulated to drive employment, boost food production and diversify the state’s economy by matching farmers with Off-Takers.
He noted that over the years, his administration has embarked on various intervention programmes aimed at entrenching attitudinal change towards agriculture in the state like the Back to Farm, the Youth Farm Centre and the Off-Takers Demand Driven Agriculture (ODDA) Scheme which, he said, is directly linked with commercial agriculture initiative.
Earlier, the Chairman Harmony Holdings, Professor Halidu Abubakar said the financial support of the state government to the company made it possible for them to give out loans to more than 100 cooperatives and about 1,000 farmers stating that their goal is to compliment the efforts, policies and programmes of the state government in the agricultural transformation agenda.
