Farmers in Khana Local Government Area have called on the government to encourage their cluster farming otherwise called communal agricultural system while the mechanization plan goes on.
Birah Lenu in an interview with our reporters said since the government is yet to beging the mechanised farming, it should encourage cluster agriculture for mass production. He explained that there is an existing cluster farms which has been in use for long now. And a cluster farmer who had a lot of farmland and individuals who have large farmlands that produce in large quantities of agricultural products can release their farmland for such large farming scale. Mr. Lenu advised government on the need to partner with the farmers of Khana extract to ensure mass production of farm produce.
The chairman of the Ogoni Integrated Farmers Birah Lenu explained that if government at both local and state level pay attention to cluster farming practices in the rural areas, it will increase food production, the prices of table food will crash in a short time, there will be employment opportunities, food starvation will become a thing of the past and inflation in the society will be deflated.
In another development, the Rivers State Micro Finance Agency says it has started the fourth face of the four billion naira of Rivers State Government and Bank of Industry (BOI) loan scheme for medium and small business owners. Briefing journalists, the chiarman of the Rivers State Micro Finance Agency Jonathan Tobin said over 1.2 billion naira has been disbursed for the medium and small businesses so far. He revealed that those who thought the scheme was just a political gimmick have now realised that the programme is genuine, the governor is committed to it, and disbursement has commence. As a result, more people are now coming for it.
The chairman of Rivers State Micro Finance Agency, Jonathan Tobin says some of the challenges the agency faces includes the attitude of beneficiaries who sees the loan as government money. He stressed that it is not a grant but a loan which must be repaid. He advised beneficiaries to pay back the loan according to the timeline. He also warns that those who fail to pay back the loan according to the payment schedule will be penalized, revealing that their Bank Verification Number (BVN) and check from their guarantor is a collateral. He however said that those who have been paying willingly stands a better chance to have a revolving loan. But those that are been compelled to repay will be deleted from the system.
