Farmers’ Day: PS debunk N400m rumor

Permanent Secretary (FMARD) Dr. Bukar Hassan

·     May 8, 2018 a new date

The Permanent Secretary (PS), Federal Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development (FMARD) Dr. Bukar Hassan has debunked the 400 million naira making the round as being shared among the government officials, saying it was a rumor and the new date for the event is now May 8^th, 2018.

Dr. Hassan speaking with Food Farm News said the programme was postponed about three times last year due to Mr. President’s absence from the country as a result of health challenges saying there was no money shared in the respect of the event among officials.

 The rumour going round was that N400 million set aside for the celebration of Farmers’ Day in 2017 may have been embezzled by government officials in charge of the event. This was revealed by sources close to the Federal Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development (FMARD) in Abuja. But our check on the PS of the ministry has cleared the air saying nothing of such has happened and the new date for the event is now May 8.

One of the sources said that the Presidency may have taken over the event from the FMARD based on the fraud rumor, but check on Aso Rock villa said the FMARD was the one handling the event.

The spokesman to the President, Mr. Femi Adesina confirmed that the programme is being handled by the FMARD, and this may have erased the impression that the presidency has taken over the programme from the ministry.

It was further gathered that the committees had already been set up to handle the different activities of the event until it was cleared that the programme would never come up as the money budgeted for the 2017  had been shared among the officials.

The August, 2017 initial date for the event was postponed due to the absence of the Mr. President who was out of the country on health reasons just as another date announced by the Minister of Agriculture, Chief Audu Ogbeh at the National Agriculture Council Meeting, held at the Obi Wali Centre, Port-Harcourt, also was postponed until this May 2018 date.

Meanwhile, finding has revealed that lack of extension officers had negatively impacted on the agricultural productivity because it has contributed to poor agronomics practices, post harvest management challenges, abuse of pesticide and the inefficient use of inputs.

The National Farmers’ Day was set aside to gather all the farmers from across the country in Abuja to celebrate their existence, the sweat and toil they are going through to put food on the tables of millions of Nigerians and it is also supposed to be rotated among the regions so as to engage farmers at the grassroots.